Reporters Without Borders reports that there are increasing reports of threats, harassment and violence against local journalists in Afghanistan.
According to the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), reports of threats, harassment and violence against local journalists are piling up from Afghanistan. Media representatives reported intimidation attempts and content-related specifications by the extremist group, the organization announced on Wednesday in Berlin. Since the Taliban came to power, around 100 private local media outlets have ceased operations, particularly in the provinces far away from the capital Kabul. For the dozen of TV and radio stations and nearly 200 print media in the country that have emerged over the past 20 years, there is a more than uncertain future.
The Afghan private television stations that still broadcast from the capital are now exposed to daily threats, the report said. Many broadcasters are forced to shut down parts of their programs because the radical Islamists have ordered them to respect Sharia law. “Series and socio-political programs have been canceled, instead we only transmit news reports and documentaries from the archives,” “Reporters Without Borders” quoted an employee of a television station.
There should be instructions to the radio media to broadcast Taliban propaganda
In the past few days, the new rulers in Kabul had ordered the most influential Afghan radio media to broadcast video and audio recordings with Taliban propaganda. In addition, according to the report, at least ten journalists had been physically assaulted or threatened while working on the streets of Kabul and Jalalabad in the past week. In the provinces far away from the capital, the pressure on media workers is even greater. So are all local offices of the private television broadcaster Tolonews TV been closed.
Even before the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan was considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. On the list of press freedom of the “Reporters Without Borders”, the Central Asian country ranks 122nd out of 180 states.