{"id":8737,"date":"2022-03-02T15:09:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T15:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=8737"},"modified":"2022-10-15T14:18:53","modified_gmt":"2022-10-15T14:18:53","slug":"afghan-media-in-a-chilling-new-phase-in-its-clamp-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2022\/03\/afghan-media-in-a-chilling-new-phase-in-its-clamp-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan media in a ‘chilling new phase of clamp down’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – The Committee to Protect Journalists has said in a fresh report that the media in Afghanistan that emerged in the two decades after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan has entered a ‘chilling new phase in its clamp down’.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It said the emergence of the GDI \u2013 an intelligence agency formerly known as the National Directorate of Security (NDS) \u2013 comes against the backdrop of a reported internal power struggle between the Taliban\u2019s southern and Haqqani network factions for control of the six-month-old regime.It added that when the Taliban took Kabul last August, media policy initially was managed by\u00a0civilian institutions: the Ministry of Information and Culture and later, the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.<\/p>\n

The first set of restrictions on Afghan media came on August 17, 2021, just two days after the Taliban\u2019s takeover of the capital, Kabul. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid broadly announced a framework for Afghan media operations, which he termed \u201csuggestions.\u201d He stressed that \u201cno broadcast should contradict Islamic values, reporting should be impartial and there should be no broadcast against national interests,\u201d\u00a0according to media reports.<\/p>\n

On September 19, 2021, the Taliban-controlled Government Media and Information Center (GMIC) announced\u00a011 new publishing rules,\u00a0including directives that journalists should coordinate with the GMIC when preparing content.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued more restrictive\u00a0directives\u00a0on November 21, banning women from appearing in Afghan television dramas and ruling that female journalists and presenters must wear\u00a0hijab<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 headscarves covering their heads and necks \u2013 on screen.<\/p>\n

The CPJ said the GDI\u2019s predecessor, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), was accountable to the now-defunct Afghan parliament and government leaders for its primary mission\u00a0of counterterrorism and foreign intelligence operations.<\/p>\n

“The Taliban\u2019s GDI has shifted its main focus to domestic affairs, including actively suppressing media and civil society activists and the detention, torture and even killing of former Afghan government military and civilian officials, according to three former government intelligence operatives who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation”, it said.<\/p>\n

CPJ has reviewed these permission letters, which are addressed to any \u201csecurity official\u201d of the Taliban. The letter names the reporter and the agency or media organization they work for and states that they have permission to visit different parts of the city for reporting purposes. The letter provides a Taliban phone number for additional confirmation of the journalist\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

A recent survey by the\u00a0Afghanistan Journalists Federation, reviewed by CPJ, found that before the fall of Kabul around 4,090 Afghan male journalists and 979 female journalists were active in Afghanistan. Six months later, an estimated 2,091 male journalists and 243 female journalists are still working in the country.<\/p>\n

In every respect, Afghanistan\u2019s once thriving media ecosystem is declining rapidly under Taliban rule.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – The Committee to Protect Journalists has said in a fresh report that the media in Afghanistan that emerged in the two decades after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan has entered a ‘chilling new phase in its clamp down’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,983,17,18,200,24,225,5,8,4,6,7],"tags":[12,360,646],"class_list":["post-8737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soceity","category-media-freedom","category-security_","category-peace","category-democracy-human-rights","category-women","category-corruption","category-politics_","category-governance","category-news_","category-afghanistan","category-headline","tag-afghanistan","tag-media","tag-cpj"],"views":443,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12198,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8737\/revisions\/12198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}