Over 300 media outlets shut in Afghanistan

A member of the Taliban special forces pushes a journalist covering a demonstration by women protestors. Representation pic/AFP

Since the Taliban took over, at least 318 media outlets have been closed in 33 of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, said a report. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a report said that 51 TV stations, 132 radio stations, and 49 online media outlets have ceased operations. "The crisis has hit newspapers the hardest with just 20 out of 114 continuing to publish." Expressing concerns over the status of the Afghan media community, the IFJ said that only 2,334 journalists are still employed "from a pre-Taliban high of 5069."

According to the IFJ, 72 per cent of journalists who lost their jobs are women. The IFJ report also stated that 243 women are still employed by the media. "From threats to draconian reporting restrictions and from economic collapse to the withdrawal of development funding the picture is catastrophic, not just for journalists who have lost their jobs or been forced to flee but also for citizens who are being denied access to information," IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said.

"If the immediate steps are not taken towards the situation of the media in the country, only a certain number of media organisations will be active in Afghanistan in the near future," said Hujatullah Mujadidi, Head of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association. "We call on the international community to invest in media to protect the process of access to information in the current Afghan situation," said Hafizullah Barakzai, head of the Afghanistan Journalists Council.

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