The Taliban in Afghanistan have decided to ban international media outlets from broadcasting over local media. The BBC first stopped broadcasting on Sunday night.
The BBC has asked the Taliban to reverse its decision, saying it will affect more than 6 million viewers of its Farsi, Pashto and Uzbek language service programs.
The BBC Persian TV channel can still be accessed, but only by 20 percent of Afghans with satellite TV.
The Khaama Press quoted, “The BBC’s TV news bulletins in Pashto, Persian, and Uzbek have been taken off air in Afghanistan after the Taliban ordered our TV partners to remove international broadcasters from their airwaves.”
In addition to the BBC, they banned Voice of America, German Deutsche Welle and the China Global Television Network from further broadcasting.
Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, 40 percent of the country’s media outlets have been out of work, and an estimated 6,400 journalists are currently unemployed.
More than 80 percent of Afghan women journalists have lost their jobs since the fall of Kabul.
Afghanistan ranks 122 on the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
In a report published in February, RSF said at least 50 journalists and media workers had been arrested by the police or the Taliban’s intelligence agency, called “Istikhbarat”.
Under an order issued by the ministry in November 2021 to suppress propaganda and vice, journalists were not allowed to interview commentators who might criticize the Taliban regime or invite them to participate in TV studio discussions.
According to RSF, female journalists were told that they must wear the full hijab.
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