‘Everything Changed Overnight’: Afghan Reporters Face Intolerance


Favorite TV series has been cancelled. A television station cut from a news report recounted the story of a pregnant police officer who was reportedly killed by the Taliban. A radio editor tells his colleagues to stage the anti-Taliban chants that cover the demonstrations in the capital.

Afghanistan’s vibrant free press and media industry has once been celebrated as a success story and labeled as one of the country’s greatest achievements. top achievements It has changed abruptly over the past two decades, after the Taliban took over the country. Now, less than a month after the Taliban took control of the capital, Kabul, and began implementing their strict Islamist policies, its survival is threatened by physical attacks, self-censorship and a dwindling journalist population.

The Taliban’s crackdown on the free press was even more pronounced Wednesday after two Afghan journalists were detained and violently attacked for covering a protest in Kabul. The photos sparked an international backlash, showing the backs of both reporters covered with bruises and wounds from repeated whippings with cables.

“The situation of free media is very critical,” said Neda, who is the presenter of a local television station in Kabul and is identified by her pseudonym to protect her identity. “No one dares to ask the Taliban about their past wrongs and their atrocities.”

More than a dozen Afghan journalists, media workers and advocates interviewed by The New York Times said that while local television networks, newspapers and news sites continue to report under the shadow of fear, intimidation and self-censorship, they are still struggling to report. The Taliban publish little information.

The Taliban has yet to issue any specific instructions for the media, but they said all Afghan organizations must restart their reporting based on Islamic laws and national interests. new government.

Hundreds of media workers, including dozens of journalists, left the country after the previous government collapsed in mid-August, according to The Times’ own account. Ahmad Quriashi, director of the Center for Afghanistan Journalists, a media support organization, said more than half of Afghanistan’s media outlets have halted their operations due to security concerns, an uncertain future and financial problems.

As part of a refugee program expanded by the US Department of State in early August, Afghans employed by US media outlets became eligible to resettle in the US, further fueling immigration.

The result is an Afghan media that cannot or will not regain the freedom it has enjoyed over the past two decades.

“It was like a dream,” said Mr Quriashi, referring to the press freedoms that followed the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Afghan media outlets have exposed corruption, exposed human rights abuses and won international recognition and awards for over two decades.

Media and entertainment were transformed more broadly as the United States funded television networks, newspapers, and radio stations, helping them reach millions of Afghans across the country.

At its peak, Afghan media boasted of the hundreds of broadcasters operating in the country. In July, Qasim Wafayezada, the former government’s information and culture minister, said that 248 television networks, 438 radio stations, 1,669 print media outlets and 119 news agencies are active across Afghanistan.

But Mr Quriashi said that despite the group’s promise to protect the free press, “everything changed for the media overnight” when the Taliban returned to power.

Turkish and Indian soap operas, which air for hours every day on most television channels, have disappeared in recent weeks, and reality and music shows have also been cancelled.

The country’s largest broadcaster, Tolo News, has stopped production of Shabake Khanda, or “Laughing Network,” a popular political comedy program watched by millions of Afghans on Friday nights.

Female television presenter Neda said that although several female hosts appeared on local television, hosted shows and covered current events a few days after the Taliban takeover, the number that appeared on the air since then had dropped to just four.

According to Reporters Without Borders, the Taliban did not allow female journalists to return to work at the state-owned radio and television station, and banned most of them from working with the media in the provinces.

“Women journalists should be able to continue their work without being harassed as soon as possible,” Christophe Deloire, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement last week.

The Taliban also pressured some organizations to share their news before they aired, according to some journalists who said they refused to comply. And some may be self-censoring negative news for fear of retaliation.

“What we see in the local media these days does not reflect the realities on the ground at all,” said Hayat, a television channel reporter. “For now we have no choice, we must compromise and censor ourselves until we find a way to leave.”

The newspaper Etilaat e Roz is among the few or, according to some, the only media outlets that continue to publish news without self-censorship, not deterred by the fearful atmosphere in Kabul. While it has stopped its research reports due to lack of information, the newspaper deals with daily news, even reports criticizing the new Taliban government.

This week, the newspaper experienced the Taliban’s harsh reaction to critical news.

Wednesday, The Taliban gathered large numbers of demonstrators According to reporters present, journalists covering the protests in and around Kabul were subjected to harassment in overcrowded prisons. The crackdown on the demonstrations and the ensuing news came after the Taliban announced on Tuesday that they would not allow protests without government approval. The United Nations said at least 19 journalists were detained on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“You’re lucky you didn’t get decapitated,” Ravina Shamdasdani, spokeswoman for the United Nations human rights office in Geneva, told reporters as Taliban guards kicked a detained journalist in the head.

Etilaat e Roz reporters told that they were detained during the protests and then taken to a nearby police station. where they are tied and beaten with cables.

One of the reporters, Taki Daryabi, said about half a dozen Taliban members handcuffed him from behind as he was on his stomach on the ground, then began kicking and hitting him until he lost consciousness.

“They beat me so much that I couldn’t resist or move,” he said. “They forced me down on my stomach, whipped me on my hips and back, and the front ones kicked me in the face.”

Reporters working for Tolo News, Ariana News, Pajhwok News Agency and several freelance journalists have also been detained and beaten by the Taliban in the past three weeks, according to local media reports.

“The Taliban are rapidly proving that their previous promises of allowing Afghanistan’s independent media to continue to operate freely and safely are worthless,” Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Wednesday. “We urge the Taliban to fulfill their previous promises and stop beating and detaining journalists while they do their job.”

Besides the dangerous environment, the flow of information from the government has been slow and very limited. There were dozens of government spokespersons; Few speak for the new Taliban government now, and they are less responsive than they were during the group’s insurgency.

In the late 1990s, the Taliban imposed strict restrictions on the media, banned television, and used state-owned radio and newspapers as propaganda platforms. But the group has promised greater openness to freedom of expression after it seized power last month.

“We will respect the freedom of the press because media reporting will be beneficial to society and can help correct the mistakes of leaders,” Zabihullah Mujahid, deputy information and culture minister, told Reporters Without Borders last week. “We are announcing to the world that we are aware of the importance of the role of the media.”

Many Afghan journalists said those words were just “words” from Taliban leaders, citing recent attacks on journalists in Kabul and elsewhere.

“Press freedom is dead in Afghanistan,” media advocate Mr Quraishi said. “And society without a free press dies.”

Jim Huylebroek contributed news from Kabul, Afghanistan. Nick Bruce contributed from Geneva.



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