Economic hardship and media restrictions stemming from the 2021 return to power of Afghanistan's Taliban have reportedly forced approximately 34% of radio stations to shutter operations in the country, rendering hundreds of men and women jobless.
The Afghan Independent Journalists Union (AIJU), a Kabul-based local media monitor, released the figures Monday to mark World Radio Day.
AIJU President Hujatullah Mujadidi told VOA that 345 radio channels were operating in the country before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, employing nearly 5,000 people, 25% of them women.
But 117 stations have since ceased broadcasting due to economic problems, Mujadidi said, adding that 1,900 people, more than half of them women, subsequently lost their jobs.
The remaining 228 stations employ more than 1,800 workers, including a few dozen women.
International sanctions on Taliban leaders and the suspension of financial assistance have deepened economic troubles in the largely aid-dependent country, multiplying challenges facing the Afghan media industry.
Critics say increasing censorship and alleged abuses of journalists by Taliban authorities have severely undermined the Afghan free press.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported last November that more than 200 journalists had suffered "arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment, threats, and intimidation" since the Taliban retook the country.
Hundreds of Afghan journalists have since fled to neighboring Pakistan and other countries, fearing reprisals for their critical reporting while the Taliban were waging a deadly insurgency against the United States-backed former Afghan government in Kabul.
Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says within the first three months of the Taliban takeover in 2021, 43% of Afghan media outlets were shuttered, and 84% of female journalists lost their jobs.
Taliban authorities reject the accusations of abuse and blame the closures on lack of funding. Critics question that assertion.
The Taliban in late 2022 blocked VOA FM broadcasts, and in 2023 at least three privately owned telecoms companies blocked access to VOA's Pashto and Dari websites and the sites for Azadi Radio, run by VOA's sister network, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In an interview with VOA's Afghan Service on Monday, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not directly respond to questions about why they ordered the broadcaster to be blocked.
"After the Taliban came to power, we have not blocked a single media outlet. All of them are active," Mujahid said. "Of course, there are amendments in the publications. The fundamental Shariah and Islamic problems that existed have been corrected."
The spokesperson said that any outlets that have shuttered did so because of a loss of funding and "due to the weak economy."
The Islamist rulers are also under fire for their sweeping restrictions on Afghan women, who are barred from receiving an education and from most workplaces in the country.
No foreign government has yet granted legitimacy to the Taliban regime over human rights concerns, especially the treatment of Afghan women.
VOA Afghan Service's Najiba Salam contributed to this report.
