The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on November 22 expressed their concerns over the worsening crackdown on Afghan media, especially on women journalists, by the Taliban.
“Taliban authorities in Afghanistan are threatening journalists and imposing strict new media guidelines that especially harm women,” Human Rights Watch said.
HRW press release said that Taliban intelligence officials had made death threats against journalists who have criticized Taliban officials and have required journalists to submit all reports for approval before publication.
New guidelines from the Vice and Virtue Ministry dictate the dress of female journalists on television and prohibit soap operas and entertainment programs featuring female actors, the rights group said.
“The Taliban’s new media regulations and threats against journalists reflect broader efforts to silence all criticism of Taliban rule,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at HRW.
“The disappearance of any space for dissent and worsening restrictions for women in the media and arts is devastating.”
Several journalists reportedly said that they had been summoned by local officials immediately after publishing reports on Taliban abuses.
According to HRW, one journalist who had reported complaints about Taliban searching houses and beating people said that the deputy governor called him into his office and told him that if he broadcast anything like that again, “He would hang me in the town square.”
Other media staff have reportedly said that heavily armed Taliban intelligence officials visited their offices and warned journalists not to use the word “Taliban” in their reporting but to refer to the “Islamic Emirate” in all publications. In one province, intelligence officials ordered local media to replace the word for suicide bomber with martyr after a published report mentioned that Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani had honoured the families of suicide bombers, read the HRW release.
On November 21, 2021, a directive issued by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice prohibited broadcasting any films deemed to be “against Islamic or Afghan values,” along with soap operas and dramas featuring women actors, and made the hijab – a head covering exposing the face – compulsory for women television journalists.
The chief editor for a provincial media outlet told HRW that most of his colleagues had stopped working for their safety. “Access to information has become very limited,” he said. “Taliban local officials have instructed us to share our reports with them before publication.”
Many media outlets have reportedly closed their offices out of fear and are publishing only online. The chief editor for a women-led media office said that her staff use pseudonyms to hide their identities because the Taliban accuse them “of promoting Western values.”
“I used to produce reports on virginity testing and violence against women, which no one can cover anymore,” said a woman who had been a journalist in Herat. “No program covers women’s issues, especially on TV channels. The educational and entertainment programs have all stopped.”
“Despite the Taliban’s promises to allow media that ‘respected Islamic values’ to function, the reality for Afghanistan is that journalists live in fear of a knock on the door or a summons from the authorities,” Gossman said. “This is contributing to an information blackout in which Taliban abuses increasingly happen in secret and without accountability.”
