On the occasion of the third year of the rule of the Taliban group, the Afghan Journalists Center has said that this year, the Center has registered 181 cases of violations of the freedom of media and journalists.

In a newsletter today (Tuesday, 13 August), the Afghanistan Journalists Center said that in the third year of Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the restrictions of this group on the free activities of the media and journalists have continued, and in the third year of its rule, this group has issued three new restrictive orders against issued by the media and reporters.

Photo: The Peace Window

According to this center, the media’s refusal to use “foreign terms”, the prohibition of photography and filming of official and informal meetings of Taliban officials in Kandahar, and the prohibition of girls’ telephone calls to radios and televisions, are orders issued by the Taliban in the past year.

This center has noted that in the past year, this center has recorded 181 cases of media and journalists’ freedom violations.

The Center of Afghan Journalists has said that the cases of violations of freedom of media and journalists include 133 cases of threats and 48 cases of detention of journalists and media workers.

According to the report of this center, among the detained journalists, two journalists are still in the prison of the Taliban group.

The report stated: “The recorded statistics of media and journalists’ rights violations in the second year recorded 179 incidents, including the death of a reporter, 20 injuries to journalists, 94 threats, 59 arrests, and five incidents of physical violence.”

According to the Afghan Journalists Center, the Taliban’s position towards the media in the third year of this group’s rule was not uniform; While a number of officials talked about the implementation of the previous government’s mass media law, “it was seen that a very traditional and religious conservative intellectual attitude prevails on the issue of freedom of expression and free media.”

According to the report of the Afghanistan Journalists Center, in the third year of the Taliban rule, the economic problems of the media have continued due to the reduction of commercial announcements, the lack of support projects and the increase in tax pressure from the Taliban.

This center also said that the departure of journalists and media workers from Afghanistan continued this year, and a large number of journalists went to Western countries, Iran and Pakistan.

According to the statistics of the Afghanistan Journalists Center, the Taliban had issued 14 restrictive directives against the media and journalists in the first two years of their rule over Afghanistan.

These guidelines cover a wide range of issues related to the media, including forcing female presenters to wear black masks and banning the playing of music and naming the Taliban group as the government of Afghanistan.

On the other hand, a number of journalists say that after the re-establishment of the Taliban group in Afghanistan, their problems and challenges have not been solved yet and they have demanded the caretaker government to solve their problems.

Mustafa Shahryar, one of the journalists in Kabul, said in a conversation with the reporter of Rosneh Selah that three years have passed since the rule of the Taliban group in Afghanistan. But the problems of journalists still persist and journalists are not free in Afghanistan.

Mr. Shahriar added that journalists have faced many challenges in the past three years, including lack of access to information, and asked the government to pay serious attention to the security of journalists’ lives and access to information.

He stated that journalists despite many problems in the field of information in Afghanistan; But journalists continue to do their duty so that the sound of information in Afghanistan is not silenced.

Mr. Shahryar also demanded serious attention from the Taliban group in the field of information in Afghanistan and emphasized that the government should provide extensive support to the country’s media.

Ahmad Nazari, another journalist, said that media work in Afghanistan has always been accompanied by problems and challenges, and now the lack of access to timely information has become one of the serious challenges for journalists.

Mr. Nazari asks the Taliban group to provide better conditions for the free activity of the media and journalists and the free circulation of information so that journalists can carry out their duties and missions in the right way.

Zahra Nabizadeh, another journalist in Kabul, stated in this conversation that the working conditions for women in the media have become very difficult and the right to access information for women journalists is very limited compared to men and they are treated in a double manner in many news conferences.

Mrs. Nabizadeh added that if the media and journalists, especially female journalists, are not supported by the Taliban and organizations that support journalists, the future of information in the country will be worrying.

He asked media supporting organizations and the Taliban group to pay serious attention to the problems of the media in Afghanistan so that information in Afghanistan does not stop.

In this regard, the Ministry of Information and Culture of the Taliban group has said that this group is committed to freedom of expression considering Islamic and national values ​​and that many problems of journalists have been solved in the last three years.

This is while the Reporters Without Borders organization said a few months ago on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day that Afghanistan is among the worst countries for journalists and press freedom after Syria and Eritrea.

According to the press freedom list prepared by Reporters Without Borders on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Afghanistan is ranked 178th in the world with 19.09 points.

But; In the last three years, the officials of the Taliban group have always spoken about the support of the free media in Afghanistan and emphasized that in the last three years, the environment for media activity in the country has been improved and the caretaker government is the supporter of the free media in the country.