Thursday 4 June 2009

Taliban uses cartoon character to tell the news

Just come across this on YouTube. The cartoon guy, ('Dickie') reads out the usual list of highly imaginative battle reports from the Taliban. The words he uses are taken directly from the communiques issued on the official Taliban website. This is the second such broadcast. The first was released on 25 May. They are made by someone called 'resistz2exist'. No idea where this person is based. Other videos from the same source are all pro-Taliban. Remarkable though that someone close to the Taliban has the technical expertise to produce this kind of material. My guess is that the voice is synthesised, although comments on that point would be welcomed. Don't let anyone tell you that the Taliban are a bunch of unsophisticated tribals living in caves. This little production, which is only a few days old, took both skill and money.

1 comment:

Lynette C said...

Hi Colla,

I am a journalist and I am doing a story on how the Taliban are taking advantage of new technology/new media and how they are becoming more creative in doing so. I came across your post re Afghanistan News Alert and was wondering if you could share your views re the impact of such 'trends'. Kindly email me soonest at lynette08@gmail.com. Thanks!