Afghan journalist: ‘We work in fear’

At a radio station in Afghanistan’s eastern Logar province, the managing editor says he double checks everything before broadcasting, making sure that “nothing is against the Taliban and their policies.”
His intense checking of content is just one of many ways journalists like him have changed how they work since the Taliban took power.
“We work in fear,” said the editor, who has worked in journalism for around 10 years and asked not to be named out of security concerns.
“What if something goes on air that the Taliban don’t like? We try to make sure that it doesn’t create problems for us, for our colleagues and the radio,” he said.
Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan three years ago, they have tightened their grip over what can and cannot be broadcast and have increased restrictions on media. But not all rules are laid out clearly, and journalists are at risk of arbitrary detention or having licenses revoked.
The Taliban’s “systematic persecution” of media means it is “not easy for journalists to fulfill their mission of providing news and information to the citizens,” said Gul Mohammad Graan, president of the Afghanistan chapter of the South Asian Association of Reporters Club and Journalists Forum, or SJF.
The radio editor told VOA that media in Afghanistan “can’t even air the voices and complaints of local communities.”
The restrictions have resulted in a significant decline in press freedom in Afghanistan, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which is known as RSF.
The country is currently ranked the third-worst for media freedom, coming in at 178 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best media environment.
In 2021, just before the Taliban takeover, it ranked 122.
A Taliban spokesperson did not respond to VOA’s request for comment. But the Taliban have previously said that media have unrestricted freedom and support from the government if they follow the country’s laws and Islamic values.
Declining numbers
Like other provinces, Logar has seen a drop in the number of journalists due to financial and political problems.
The radio journalist said the province has 30 journalists — all of them men — who work in five nongovernment-affiliated radio stations — a 50% decrease from 2021.
The decline is a trend seen across Afghanistan. In the first three months of the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, 43% of the media outlets closed, and more than two-thirds of the 12,000 media workers lost their jobs, according to RSF. The country’s female journalists were among those most affected.
Only a few female journalists remain in the profession because of rules that they must cover their faces on TV or cannot travel without a close male guardian.
Additionally, women are denied access to official sources, said a journalist and member of a media watchdog group in Afghanistan who requested anonymity. Some have said they were not allowed to enter press conferences and government buildings.
“There are no female journalists in most of the provinces, particularly in the southern and eastern provinces,” the radio journalist said. He added that the Taliban’s strict restrictions, compounded by economic problems, have made it difficult for women to work in the media sector.
‘Threats, detentions continue’
Large numbers of journalists have fled Afghanistan since August 2021. Those still working in the country do so under increasing pressure.
“There are no cases of journalists killed in the past few months. But threats, detentions and pressure on journalists have continued, and journalists work in an environment of fear,” the journalist said.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center has documented 181 media violation cases in the past 12 months, including 133 cases of threats, the suspension of several licenses, and 48 arrests.
But the watchdog said a positive change in the third year of the Taliban’s rule is a reduction in the number of targeted attacks on journalists.
No clear policies
Part of the problem for Afghanistan’s media is uncertainty.
A month after seizing power, the Taliban issued 11 directives for broadcasting in the country, which watchdogs and journalists said was the Taliban’s plan to control and censor news and information.
The Taliban’s spokesperson said on several occasions that the media law under the former government remained in force.
But a Kabul-based journalist who requested his identity not to be disclosed told VOA the Taliban are not clear about their own media policies.
“The reason that it is so difficult to work under the Taliban is that there are no laws,” the journalist said. “For a journalist, it is difficult to know how the Taliban would react to content, as there are many Taliban departments involved in dealing with media.”
RSF has also found that to be the case.
“The situation is particularly confusing for journalists who receive directives from many different parts of the government,” its research states.
Despite the restrictions, Graan of SJF said the media still have “a positive impact,” creating awareness and informing the public of local and international events.
“Even with all these limitations under the Taliban, I think it is important that the media continue their work,” he said.
Back in Logar province, the radio journalist remains hopeful that things for media will improve.
“We are here in Afghanistan. We don’t have any other place to go. And we will continue,” he said.