‘Broader efforts to silence all criticism’: Human rights group raises concern over Taliban crackdown on Afghan media

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday (local time) raises concerns about the imposition of new new media guidelines in Afghanistan by the Taliban which primarily endangers women.

HRW in a statement said Taliban intelligence officials had issued the threat of death to journalists who had criticized Taliban officials and needed journalists to submit all reports before publication.

The new guideline from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue determines women’s journalist dresses on television and banning soap operas and entertainment programs featuring female actors, said rights groups.

“The Rules and Threats of the Taliban New Media on Journalists who reflect broader efforts to silence all criticisms of the Taliban government,” said Patricia Gossman, Asia Director at HRW. “Whatever loss of space for limiting differences and burning for women in the media and art is very devastating.”

Some journalists said that they had been called by local officials immediately after publishing reports on Taliban violations. A journalist who has reported complaints about the Taliban search houses and defeated people said that the deputy governor called him to his office and told him that if he broadcasts something like that again, “he will hang me in the square.”

Other media staff have reported that Taliban intelligence officials who are armed with their office and warn journalists not to use the word “Taliban” in their reporting but to refer to “Islamic Emirates” in all publications.

Last week, Taliban services for promotion of virtues and prevention of representatives prohibited broadcast films that were considered “against Islamic values ​​or Afghanistan,” together with Opera soap and drama featuring female actors, and making headscarves covering faces – mandatory for women’s television journalists.

The Taliban has also suppressed the media, especially in the provinces, to publish the reports they want and have ordered journalists in some cases to interview them, said those rights. A journalist said: “After they threatened us with death, we published what they said. Now we broadcast the Quran verses at the beginning of the program and the NAAT [Islamic songs] because we are afraid of our safety.”

Many media outlets have closed their offices because of fear and publishing only online. “Apart from the Taliban appointment to allow the media to ‘respect Islamic values’ to function, the reality for Afghanistan is that journalists live in fear of knocking on doors or calls from the authorities,” Gossman said.