RASC News Agency: Afghanistan’s Center for Journalists has reported that a directive banning the broadcast of any images depicting living beings has been issued to journalists and media outlets in Helmand, effectively pushing the province’s visual media toward complete shutdown. A local source in Helmand confirmed that the directive was formally issued on Thursday, October 24, by Sher Mohammad Wahdat, the Taliban-appointed Director of Information and Culture in the province.
Wahdat declared that under the Taliban’s “Law of Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice”, all imagery of living beings is strictly prohibited. Additionally, the directive imposes a blanket ban on video interviews, restricting journalists and media outlets in Helmand to written and audio formats only. As a result of this directive, both Helmand’s regional branch of “National Television” and the private channel “Sabawoon TV” now face imminent closure. The Center for Journalists further noted that Helmand was the first province to implement a month-long ban on video recording in late 2022, though that restriction was temporarily lifted.
Helmand also set a precedent earlier in August 2023 by becoming the first province to prohibit the broadcast of women’s voices across all media, including in public health announcements and educational messages. With this latest order, Helmand joins Badghis, Takhar, and Kandahar as the fourth province to officially outlaw the filming and broadcasting of images. Journalists in other provinces, including Logar, Maidan Wardak, and Daykundi, are reportedly encountering similar restrictions. The Center for Journalists strongly condemned the ban on live images in Helmand, warning that this restrictive policy could soon be enforced across other provinces as well.
In a statement, the Center emphasized the severe impact this directive will have on media operations, predicting that television networks will be forced into closure if such bans continue. The Center for Journalists described the prohibition of live images as an exceedingly regressive and irrational measure, urging the Taliban’s leadership to reconsider. The Taliban’s “Law of Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice” explicitly forbids the broadcast of images depicting living beings, authorizing Taliban enforcers to halt the dissemination of such content across media platforms.
