KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – State-run television in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktia province has stopped broadcasting and shifted to radio after the Taliban banned the airing of images of living beings, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) said on Sunday.
In a statement, AFJC said Taliban authorities in Paktia instructed the station’s staff to halt visual programming and provide reports only in audio or written form.
The ban has also disrupted the work of the state-run Bakhtar News Agency’s representatives in the province, along with print media and several local radio stations, including NAN, Zhwand, Hawa, Patan Ghag and Semkani Ghag, whose visual content on social media has been curtailed, the group said.
According to AFJC, Paktia is the 23rd province where the Taliban have formally implemented the ban, which stems from Article 17 of the group’s “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law enacted last year. Similar bans are enforced in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar, Badakhshan, Bamyan, Daykundi, Faryab, Panjshir, and many other provinces.
AFJC said the measure has further tightened operational space for media outlets, adding that dozens of television stations across Afghanistan have been forced to shut down or convert to radio since the restrictions began in mid-2024. Print newspapers in several provinces have also reduced output or suspended operations due to the restriction.
The watchdog warned that limiting visual reporting undermines public access to information in a country where media activity had already sharply declined since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. It urged the authorities to lift the ban and other restrictions that impede journalists’ ability to work safely and independently.
Despite earlier pledges to uphold Afghanistan’s Media Law, the Taliban has issued more than 20 directives curbing press freedom. Over half the country’s media outlets have closed, and many journalists have fled or gone into hiding.
Female journalists face additional curbs, including gender segregation in newsrooms, bans on broadcasting their voices in some provinces, and requirements to wear masks while on air.
