Afghanistan’s media sector has dramatically shrunk under three years of Taliban government, while international monitors have criticised Kabul’s new rulers for allegedly trampling reporters’ rights.
Research by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and its Geneva-based Human Rights Office said journalists and media outlets “operate under an environment of censorship and tight restrictions”.
Between the Taliban’s return in August 2021 and the end of this September the UN team “documented instances of human rights violations affecting 336 journalists and media workers”, the report said.
Afghan journalists have reported hundreds of cases of abuses by government officials, including torture and arbitrary detention, as well as tightening censorship since the Taliban authorities returned to power.
Reporters say they are frequently rounded up for covering attacks by militant groups or writing about the discrimination of women, and some report being locked up in the same cell as Islamic State group militants.
“No other profession has been so humiliated,” said a journalist from the north who was recently detained and beaten.
“Me and my friends no longer want to continue in this profession. Day after day new restrictions are announced,” he told AFP, asking not to be named for security reasons. “If we cover (attacks) or topics related to women, we expose ourselves to threats by phone, a summons or detention.”
When the Taliban authorities seized power in 2021 after a two-decade-long insurgency against foreign-backed governments, Afghanistan had 8,400 media employees, including 1,700 women. Only 5,100 remain in the profession, including 560 women, according to media industry sources.
“We have recorded around 450 cases of violations against journalists since the collapse, including arrests, threats, arbitrary detention, physical violence, torture,” said Samiullah, an official at a journalists’ association in Afghanistan, whose name has been changed for his protection.
The Taliban authorities have not responded to several requests for comment on the reports. However, Hayatullah Muhajir Farahi, the deputy minister of information, recently said in a statement that media were allowed to work in Afghanistan on condition that they respect “Islamic values, the higher interest of the country, its culture and traditions”.
In September, new regulations were slapped on political talk shows, media executives told AFP. Guests must be selected from a Taliban-approved list, the themes sanctioned and criticism of the government prohibited. Shows must not be aired live, allowing for recordings to be checked and “weak points” to be removed
The state radio and television station RTA no longer allows women to work as journalists, according to an employee within the organisation who asked not to be named.
In southern Helmand province, women’s voices are banned from television and radio. Surveillance of journalists continues on social networks and the press survives through self-censorship.
The London-based Afghanistan International channel, for which no Afghan is allowed to work anymore, accused Kabul in September of jamming its frequencies.
A recent law on the “promotion of virtue and prevention of vice” which formalises the strict interpretation of Islamic law has further worried journalists.
The law prohibits taking pictures of living beings and women from speaking loudly in public.
