Taliban Ban the Broadcast of Images of Living Beings in Media Outlets in Kunduz

According to the statement, published on Wednesday, April 16, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued an official letter to the governor’s office of Kunduz, instructing that henceforth, filming of living beings and broadcasting their images through the media must cease.

The Journalists Center said that Kunduz is the fourteenth province where this ban has been officially enforced. Previously, this decision had been implemented in Kandahar, Takhar, Badghis, Helmand, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Farah, Nimroz, Badakhshan, Baghlan, Jawzjan, Zabul, and Parwan provinces.

The Center added that in Kunduz, in addition to Taliban-controlled state media such as National Radio and Television, Bakhtar News Agency, and the Kunduz Gazette, private outlets like Uranus TV and Shabnam, Kuhandazh, Kunduz, and Roshani radio stations are also active. However, with the enforcement of this order, TV channels will effectively be reduced to radio stations, and other outlets will be deprived of visual reporting.

The Journalists Center expressed serious concern over the expansion of this ban and warned that such actions are in direct contradiction with the principles of freedom of expression, the right to access information, and Afghanistan’s mass media law. It called on Taliban authorities to reconsider and revoke the decision.

It is worth noting that the Taliban have imposed numerous restrictions on media over the past three years, and are now, through a broad ban on visual content, moving toward the complete elimination of visual media in the country.