Islamabad: When the security situation deteriorates amid the progress of the Taliban, the greatest loss has been issued by the media that resigns from the area captured, which damages the freedom of the press.
Ayesha Tanzeem, writing in America (VOA) said that the Taliban day entered the Balkh District, 20 kilometers west of Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh last month, Nawbahar’s local radio station closed the door and most of his journalists hid.
Within a few days the station begins to broadcast again, but its programming is different.
Instead of regular line-up, Nawbahar played the national anthem and Islamic show produced by the Taliban, reported VOA.
The programming switch is far from how Nawbahar is usually operated.
The station began in the northern province in 2004, broadcast news and entertainment in languages from and Pashto.
His experience reflects a growing trend for independent Afghan media.
When the security situation deteriorates, so is the situation for all others getting countries made in the past 20 years, including press freedom, said Tanzeem.
As per organization based in the UK, Afghanistan goes from independent media under the rules of Taliban to 170 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers and several TV stations since the US-led invasion to the country 20 years ago.
Now foreign troops are almost gone and the Taliban almost doubled the area under their control, many journalists work in areas that are not safe escape to a safe place, report VOA.
Nearly 50 journalists in the new area under the control of Taliban have been forced to go or be evacuated for fear of their lives in recent weeks.
More than 20 media outlets have stopped operating, while others are forced to broadcast Taliban propaganda, according to Najib Sharifi, President of the Afghan journalist safety committee that monitors threats to the media.
“We have at least five media stations, private media outlets, which have been taken over by the Taliban, and through these five stations, the Taliban broadcasts their propaganda,” Sharifi told VOA.
“They also have stopped broadcasting music and women’s voices.” Sharifi said that in the many areas of the Taliban seemed to be turned with the same practice they used in the 90s when they ruled the country under the brutal Islamic code, where women had no place in public life.
Afghanistan has become one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.
Last week, Reuters photographer who won Pulitzer prize, Denmark Siddiqui, was killed when Afghan’s special forces he was embedded with direct contact with the Taliban.
Now, with the mass movement of journalists from several regions, physical risk has exacerbated the threat to the flow of information free and impartial at the time of the allegations of human rights atrocities increased from both parties, Tanzeem said.
As if the physical threat and lack of access is insufficient, journalists in Afghanistan are increasingly facing other obstacles; A propaganda avalanche and fake news through social media, report VOA.
“A large number of propaganda is being arranged and disseminated, mostly by the Taliban,” Sharifi said, added that it became very difficult for journalists to filter between facts and fiction.
According to VOA, journalists in Afghanistan said they were not only worried about their careers but also the future of journalism.
Afghan media freedom in a retreat because the security situation deteriorated amid the progress of the Taliban
