RASC News Agency: Reports from Daykundi reveal that the Taliban’s Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has directed local media outlets and journalists to align their broadcasts with the group’s propaganda. According to credible sources, on Thursday, December 26, Taliban officials demanded that local media dedicate a substantial portion of their programming to pro-Taliban content. Journalists have also been explicitly warned against capturing images or filming living beings, a directive in line with the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic principles. Furthermore, media workers in Daykundi have been ordered to grow beards, underscoring the group’s enforcement of its ultra-conservative dress and grooming codes.
Taliban authorities in Daykundi have recently banned photography and videography during public events, administrative meetings, and other news-related activities. This follows a report released by the Afghanistan Journalists Center, which documented 181 violations of media freedoms by the Taliban in the past year, highlighting the group’s escalating suppression of press freedoms.
In a related development, Mullah Shirin Akhund, the Taliban-appointed governor of Kandahar, urged poets and writers to promote a “positive image” of the Taliban during a recent meeting. Despite previously touting themselves as a “people’s regime,” the Taliban appear to have recognized their lack of genuine public support. These coercive measures reveal their increasing desperation to fabricate legitimacy, resorting to propaganda and intimidation to maintain control over the Afghanistani populace.
