KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — The Taliban has dismissed at least 300 employees, including journalists and technical staff, from the state-run Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) as part of a broader effort to downsize government institutions.
Sources told KabulNow that the dismissed employees, including female journalists, were removed from RTA’s central office in Kabul and its provincial branches.
Most of those dismissed were technical staff and journalists with years of experience, majority hired during the previous government. Several dismissed journalists described the move as unjust, claiming that those loyal to the Taliban and with strong connections remained in their jobs.
Atal Shirzad, a journalist who worked with RTA for ten years, called his dismissal “unfair” in a Facebook post. Another employee, Matiullah Zaki from the Nangarhar office, said he lost his job after six years of service. He claimed hiring and firing decisions now favor loyalty over competence.
The mass dismissals appear to follow a directive reportedly issued by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada to reduce public sector staffing by 20%, including cuts within the Taliban’s security forces. The directive also calls for significant salary reductions for government employees this fiscal year.
In recent weeks, hundreds of civil servants, including university professors and school teachers, many of them women, have lost their jobs. A leaked plan from the Taliban’s Ministry of Education suggests that around 90,000 positions could be cut from the ministry alone.
The job losses and salary reductions come amid growing poverty and unemployment. The United Nations reports that nearly 23 million people in the country — over half its population — require humanitarian aid this year.
