All journalists and media workers operating in Afghanistan will be registered in a central database with the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture, the ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qane said.
Mr Qane said the move is aimed at improving the treatment of media workers attempting to do their jobs, and that according under a new agreement, the ministries of interior affairs, foreign affairs, general intelligence departments and the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice should not interfere in media affairs of media without coordinating with the Commission on Media Violations.
Mr Qane told Rukhshana Media that once journalists and media workers register, they will be issued with identity cards to provide them with a better working space and easier access.
He added that the only department overseeing the media is the Information and Culture Department, which will take action in case of violations by media, in coordination with the Commission on Media Violation.
“The environment of media in the country is distracted and everyone shouts using the title of a journalist while they have neither profession nor media work experience,” he said.
According to Mr Qane, the database will help prevent the misuse of the journalist title and prevent the further waste of funds given to the journalists by the international community, and also to provide more facilities for journalists.
“We are committed to freedom of speech,” he said. “Of course, within the framework of Islamic values.”
A number of journalists have expressed their concern about the Taliban’s move, saying that it is possible this is merely a continuation of the restrictive measures already imposed on the media.
Mustafa Shahryar, an Afghan reporter, told Rukhshana Media that if this plan of the Taliban is aimed at creating facilities for journalists and media work, then it is a positive and praiseworthy action. But if they instead put more pressure on journalists and media with this plan, it is extremely worrying.
Since taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has increasingly encroached on media freedoms and cracked down on journalists reporting. In many situations, reporters have been prevented from going into the field to do interviews and victims and witnesses have been threatened not to talk to the media.
Taliban forces have also been regularly arresting, beating, torturing and imprisoning journalists with impunity.
Mortaza Behboodi, an Afghan French journalist who came to cover news events in Afghanistan three months ago, was detained by the Taliban and his fate is still unknown.
Previously, the United Nations Office in Afghanistan said that in 2022, more than 200 cases of violence and threats against journalists by Taliban forces were recorded.
