In Afghanistan, where the Taliban's tightening grip on media freedoms poses unprecedented challenges, Amu TV stands out as a critical source of independent news and entertainment for the Afghan people...
Lotfullah Najafizada
Lotfullah Najafizada is the Founder and CEO of Amu TV, an international TV channel for Afghanistan, headquartered in Washington DC. At Amu TV, Najafizada and his colleagues are trying to revitalize free press in Afghanistan by connecting Afghan journalists overseas with those who are inside the country and providing free and unbiased reporting for the people of Afghanistan as a response to growing media censorship under the Taliban.
Najafizada’s nearly two decades of journalism experience includes leading TOLOnews TV (2009-2021), where he led the largest news operation in the country for over a decade. He conducted many high-profile interviews with global leaders and hosted Afghanistan’s only presidential debate in 2019. Among recognitions for his work, he won Journalist of the Year Award by One Young World in 2022, Paris-based Reporters without Borders awarded him with the prestigious medal of Press Freedom Hero in 2016, TIME Magazine profiled him as a Next Generation Global Leader in 2016 and Forbes magazine selected him among the 30 under 30 Asia influencers in media in 2017. Najafizada was the only Afghan journalist who attended two rounds of civil society talks with the Taliban in Doha (2019) and in Oslo (2022) to fight for media rights in the peace talks. He is a former fellow with the Institute of Politics, University of Chicago (2021-2022) Asia Society (2012), the Atlantic Council (2019), Rumsfeld Foundation (2016), and World Press Institute (2010).
Events IJF 2024
