The Taliban released four Afghan journalists on Wednesday after detaining them for two days in the southeastern province of Khost.
Sakhi Sarwar Miakhil, editor in chief of Gharghasht TV; Pamir Andish, editor in chief of Cheenar Radio; Abdul Rahman Ashna of Nan FM, and Mohammaduddin Shah Khiali, editor in chief of Wolas Ghag Radio were released by the Taliban, according to a statement by the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee.
AJSC stated that these journalists were detained Monday by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice after they were summoned for “a seminar.”
“Officials at the Directorate of the Promotion of Virtue (of the Taliban) in Khost Province told the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee that the editors of the mentioned outlets were summoned for a reform seminar,” added AJSC’s statement.
A local journalist with knowledge of the case who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal told VOA that the journalists were detained for the entertainment shows that were aired in April for the Eid celebration that marked the end of Ramadan.
“It was because in some of the shows [for Eid], music was played. There were entertainment shows, possibly with female voices,” the journalist said.
The Taliban banned on-air music and entertainment programs after seizing power in August 2021.
Journalists in some provinces have told VOA that the Taliban barred them from airing female voices.
Gul Mohammad Graan, president of the Afghan chapter of the South Asian Association of Reporters Club and Journalists Forum, told VOA that the absence of a clear media policy by the Taliban has created “confusion” among the journalists.
“They do not know what to air and what not to,” he added.
Graan said the disorder is also the result of an "interference" of different agencies of the Taliban’s government.
“Although the [Taliban’s] current government stresses that without the Ministry of Information and Culture, no government agency has the right to interfere in the media affairs, the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and the Intelligence in the capital and provinces are imposing their own restrictions on media,” he said.
Graan said the Taliban announced last year that the media law under the former government is in effect until a new media law comes into force, but “this is not the case.”
In February 2022, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said that the Mass Media Law of Afghanistan “is still enforceable.”
Sumaya Walizada, a spokesperson for the Afghanistan Journalists Center, told VOA that according to Afghanistan’s mass media law, the government “should not interfere in the operation of free media.”
Beh Lih Yi, Asia program director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, called on the Taliban “to immediately end the arbitrary arrests of Afghan journalists.”
She told VOA that journalists in Afghanistan “have been detained simply for doing their job.”
“We are concerned,” she said, adding that there are still two Afghan journalists in the Taliban’s detention, and “we call on their immediate release.”
Waheed Faizi and Shahnaz Nafees from VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report. This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
