NEW YORK: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based watchdog group, has urged the Taliban to halt their “relentless media intimidation campaign” and keep their word to safeguard journalists in Afghanistan.
Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, said in a statement issued on Monday that after Taliban takeover Afghanistan’s press is no more vibrant and lost its vibrant touch.
He said that media repression is isolating Afghanistan from the world and at the same time country is faced with a humanitarian crisis.
True and authentic information can help save lives in crisis, but the Taliban’s ongoing crackdown on media does the opposite.
After assuming power on August 15, 2021, the Taliban pledged to allow press freedom. However, since then, they have closed down hundreds of local media outlets, prohibited some foreign broadcasters, and denied visas to foreign correspondents, CPJ noted.
In August 2022, CPJ released a special report on the media situation in Afghanistan, noting that it has since continued to track several instances of censorship, violence against journalists, arbitrary arrests, and restrictions on female reporters. According to CPJ, the General Directorate of Intelligence of the Taliban has been the primary driver of the crackdown.
It added that since 2021, Afghans have become among the majority of exiled journalists who receive emergency support from CPJ each year. Hundreds of Afghan journalists have fled in the last two years to nearby nations like Pakistan and Iran, and many of them are now stuck in legal limbo without clear prospects of resettlement to a third country.
According to CPJ, Afghanistan appeared in its most recent annual global census of journalists in prison on December 1, 2022, for the first time in 12 years, with three journalists incarcerated.
APP—
