Soon after the Taliban took control over Afghanistan, the spokesman of the terror group, Zabihullah Mujahid, declared that the Taliban would not harm journalists and media personnel in the country, and assured that the Taliban would let the private media in Afghanistan continue to be ‘free’ and ‘independent.’ However, it came with a caveat – the media needs to function within ‘cultural frameworks’ deemed appropriate by the Taliban. Speaking at a press conference held by the Taliban in Kabul, Mujahid said:
We are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks. Private media can continue to be free and independent. They can continue their activities
However, hours after the press conference, news agencies reported that the Taliban were looking for journalists who worked with international news networks. For example, DW, a German news network reported that the Taliban were on the hunt for one of their journalists. When they could not find him, they killed a member of his family.
There have been other reports of incidents that are causing anxiety amongst journalists – male and female workers of the industry alike. For example, in a recent article published by the Washington Post, Lotfullah Najafizada, the head of Tolo TV, a popular news channel in Afghanistan, expressed insecurity about of the future journalism in the country. “I knew if we shut down, to restart the channel would have been much more difficult,” he said, as Tolo TV continued to broadcast despite the collapse of the government followed by the president’s departure from the country.
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