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The Taliban-led administration in Afghanistan has decided to prohibit international media outlets from broadcasting through local media. According to Khaama Press, the BBC was the first to halt broadcasts on Sunday night.
In a statement, the BBC asked the Taliban to rescind their decision, claiming that it will harm more than six million viewers of Persian, Pashto, and Uzbek language service programmes.
The BBC Persian TV channel can still be viewed, but only by the 20% of Afghans who have satellite TV.
The BBC’s Pashto, Persian, and Uzbek TV news bulletins have been taken off the air in Afghanistan after the Taliban ordered our TV partners to remove international broadcasters from their airways, according to a statement obtained by Khaama Press.
In addition to the BBC, the Taliban has prohibited further transmissions from Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, and China Global Television Network.
According to Reporters Without Borders, since the Taliban reclaimed control of Afghanistan in August last year, 40% of the country’s media outlets have been closed, and an estimated 6,400 journalists are currently unemployed (RSF).
Since Kabul’s fall, more than 80% of Afghan female journalists have lost their employment.
Afghanistan is ranked 122 in the World Press Freedom Index for 2021.
The RSF reported in February that at least 50 journalists and media workers had been briefly detained or arrested by police or the Taliban’s intelligence organisation, “Istikhbarat.”
The Ministry for Promoting Virtue and Suppressing Vice issued a directive in November 2021 prohibiting journalists from interviewing or inviting pundits who might criticise the Taliban administration to take part in TV studio discussions.
According to the RSF, female journalists were instructed to wear complete hijab.
