RASC News Agency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the Taliban’s new prohibition against broadcasting images of living beings on Afghanistan media, describing it as a deeply troubling move that signals an alarming regression. A CPJ official based in New York called on the international community to cease its “passive observation of Afghanistan’s rapid descent into repression.”
Carlos Martínez de la Serna, Program Director of CPJ, remarked, “The Taliban’s recent ban on television broadcasts, filming, and photography in Takhar should be a wake-up call to everyone who cares about press freedom worldwide.” The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, operated by the Taliban, recently declared the enforcement of a regulation barring the display of living beings, claiming such broadcasts are “un-Islamic.”
Previously, Saif-ul-Islam Khyber, spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue, confirmed to the Associated Press that the group had directed media outlets in Takhar, Maidan Wardak, and Kandahar to refrain from showing images of living beings. Khyber described this mandate as part of the newly enacted “Virtue and Prohibition” policy.
Recent reports from Afghanistan media reveal that Yousuf Ahmadi, head of the Taliban-controlled National Television, informed network managers of the group’s intent to suspend broadcasts altogether. Khyber also stated that this regulation would be gradually implemented across all media in Afghanistan, beginning in selected provinces and eventually expanding nationwide, as he conveyed to Agence France-Presse.
Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have launched a sweeping campaign to suppress and censor the Afghanistan press. Their restrictive measures include bans on music and television series, obligatory masks for female presenters, prohibitions on live political broadcasts, and forced closures of various media outlets.
