KABUL — The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — the group’s morality enforcement body — has banned the broadcast and publication of images of living beings in Kapisa province, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) said on Wednesday.
The ban covers photographs and video footage showing humans or animals, a restriction the Taliban justify on religious grounds.
According to the AFJC, following the enforcement of the directive, Kapisa National Television has been forced to change its operations and now functions solely as a radio station. The activities of private media outlets in the province have also been further restricted.
The media watchdog said that in addition to state-run outlets operating under Taliban control, several private radio stations — Seda-e Nejrab, Neda-ye Haqiqat, and Tanin-e Seda — are currently active in Kapisa and have been directly affected by the ban.
Kapisa is the 25th province in Afghanistan where the Taliban have imposed a ban on broadcasting images of living beings.
The enforcement of such restrictions on media began in August 2024, and the ban is explicitly included in the Taliban’s Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center, an independent media watchdog, warned that increasing restrictions imposed by the Taliban on journalists and media outlets — particularly the ban on visual content — have severely undermined public access to information.
The center added that these measures have led to the closure of several media organizations and widespread unemployment among journalists and media workers across the country.
Media freedom in Afghanistan has sharply declined since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, with journalists facing censorship, intimidation, and growing limitations on their professional activities.
