KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports that the Taliban has closed at least 12 private and public media outlets across seven provinces of Afghanistan in 2024.
In a report on Wednesday, the media watchdog stated that in 2024, eleven TV stations and one radio station were forced to completely cease operations, while three radio stations were temporarily closed in Afghanistan.
According to RSF, Arezo TV in Kabul is the latest victim of the Taliban’s media crackdown. Taliban agents raided the private TV station’s office in Kabul on December 4, insulted and mistreated its staff, confiscated equipment, sealed its doors, and detained seven employees, including the director and one of its presenters.
“The ideological hardening of the Taliban in recent months has accelerated repression and increased threats against media outlets in Afghanistan,” said Célia Mercier, Head of RSF’s South Asia Desk. She added that the Taliban’s recent enactment of the morality law, which imposed a ban on broadcasting images of living beings, further exacerbated the situation and led to a series of TV station closures across the country.
The RSF official called for the immediate release of Arezo TV employees from Taliban detention and the unconditional reopening of all media outlets closed in recent years.
According to the watchdog, since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, at least 141 journalists have been arrested or detained. Since January 2024, at least 25 journalists have been arrested or detained, many of them accused of collaborating with exiled media outlets.
Upon reclaiming power in August 2021, the Taliban pledged to uphold freedom of the press. However, in practice, the regime has imposed significant restrictions on media activities and journalists, frequently shutting down media outlets that criticize the regime.
In April of this year, the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture suspended the broadcasts of two private television channels, ‘Noor’ and ‘Barya,’ in Kabul, citing violations of “journalistic principles and Islamic values.” RSF, however, says that the Taliban’s decision to close these two stations was politically motivated, as they are owned by the Jamiat-e-Islami and Hezb-e-Islami political parties.
The Taliban’s “morality law,” enacted in August, which bans the broadcast of images of living beings, has worsened the situation, resulting in the closure of many more TV stations, including state-run channels, in recent months.
