The mission of the HIM in Afghanistan (UNAMA) denounced this Thursday that the de facto Taliban government vetoed the live broadcast of political programs, which must be approved by the fundamentalists in advance, and issued restrictions on the analysts who can participate in them.
In a report published today on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, UNAMA stated that the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture ordered the media in September “to suspend live political panels.”
The authorities required that these programs be previously recorded so that “content that is considered sensitive or contrary to the de facto authorities is eliminated before broadcast.”
Additionally, the UN mission indicated that the ministry had shared with the media a list of 64 analysts, including two women, who could be invited to said programs.
If a media outlet wants to invite another expert, it must ask permission from the Taliban, from whom it will also have to receive approval on the topic of discussion.
According to UNAMA, the Ministry of Information and Culture He also vetoed the participation of religious scholars who could cause confusion or encourage dispute, which leaves a wide margin of interpretation for the Taliban to allow or not the intervention of those who do not share their ideology.
Political debate programs continue to be broadcast on Afghan television, despite the fact that the Taliban government recently banned the broadcast of videos or images of living beings, considering them contrary to the morality law it ratified last August.
Freedom of the press, among other basic rights, has suffered a serious deterioration since the Taliban came to power in August 2021.
Afghanistan has suffered the disappearance of more than half of the 547 media outlets operating in the country since that date, which led many journalists to leave the country for fear of fundamentalists, while many who remained are victims of threats or have been even being arrested.
The Asian country, which was previously considered one of the most dangerous in the world for information professionals, was ranked 178 out of 180 countries in the latest press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). EFE (I)
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