BY SHAWN MCCARTHY
In the three years since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban government has smothered Afghanistan’s once thriving media with censorship and intimidation.
To mark the August 15 anniversary, Toronto-based Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) released a report by former Afghani journalist Mujtaba Haris that describes the crackdown on journalists and especially female ones.
Haris’s report paints a grim picture, and urges the international community to take concrete action to support media freedom in Afghanistan.
Before the takeover, the country benefited from a “vibrant and dynamic media environment, with its wide range of voices and critical reporting,” Harris reported. That all changed after August 2021.
The new regime’s effort to bring media under its control has resulted in more than half of the country’s media outlets shutting down, with women bearing the brunt of the job losses.
“The Taliban’s policies have effectively silenced female voices in the media, depriving them of their right to work and to contribute to the public discourse,” the report noted.
Some journalists have used digital platforms to bypass censorship and access information. Many media workers have fled the country and continue to disseminate information on social media platforms such as YouTube, X and Facebook.
The JHR report is urging the international community to support media freedom in Afghanistan by providing moral, political, and financial support to journalists.
Foreign governments, notably those that are members of the international Media Freedom Coalition, must advocate for the rights of female media professionals and hold the Taliban accountable for the human rights violations perpetrated against the press.
The JHR report concluded that thereis a pressing need to support Afghan journalists in exile, ensuring they can continue their work without fear of persecution.
Shawn is Past President of WPFC.
