Taliban decides to ban international media broadcasts in Afghanistan
Highlight
- BBC became the first to stop broadcasting Sunday night
- Taliban also bans Voice of America, German Deutsche Welle
- China Global Television Network has also been banned from further broadcasting.
The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has decided to ban international media outlets broadcasting via local media. The BBC became the first country to stop broadcasting on Sunday night, Khama Press reported.
In a statement, the BBC has asked the Taliban to withdraw its decision, saying it would affect more than 6 million viewers of Persian, Pashto and Uzbek language service programmes.
The BBC Persian TV channel is still accessible, but only 20 percent of Afghans have satellite TV.
“The BBC’s TV news bulletins in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek have been shut down in Afghanistan after the Taliban ordered our TV partners to remove international broadcasters from their broadcasts,” Khama Press was quoted as saying by the statement.
In addition to the BBC, the Taliban have also banned Voice of America, the German Deutsche Welle and the China Global Television Network from further broadcasting.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August last year, 40 percent of the country’s media outlets, while an estimated 6,400 journalists are currently unemployed, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
More than 80 percent of Afghan female journalists have lost their jobs since the fall of Kabul.
Afghanistan is ranked 122nd in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
In a report published in February, the RSF said that at least 50 journalists and media personnel have been briefly detained or arrested by police or the Taliban’s intelligence agency “Istikbarat”.
Under a decree issued in November 2021 by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtuous and Repressive Vice, journalists were forbidden from interviewing commentators who might criticize the Taliban regime, or asking them to participate in TV studio discussions. can invite.
According to the RSF, women journalists were told that they should wear full hijab.
(With inputs from IANS)