Year later, Afghan media struggles to survive: ‘no law, only restrictions’ | World News,The Indian Express
According to a report by the International Federation of Journalists which partners with the Afghan National Journalists Union, in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover, of 400 media organisations, over 160 have had to shut down, of which nearly 100 are radio stations.
Monday, Aug 29, 2022
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Year later, Afghan media struggles to survive: ‘no law, only restrictions’
According to a report by the International Federation of Journalists which partners with the Afghan National Journalists Union, in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover, of 400 media organisations, over 160 have had to shut down, of which nearly 100 are radio stations.
Written by Nirupama Subramanian
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Kabul | Updated: August 28, 2022 8:29:40 am
Need a media law, otherwise it will be difficult to define boundaries: Khpolwak Sapai, director of Tolo News (Express Photo)Sadiqa Shirazi knew what the Taliban thought about her journalism well before their takeover of Afghanistan. From 2008, as Shirazi, then running a TV and radio station in Kunduz, focussed on stories about domestic violence, women’s rights and their education, she and her husband started getting death threats. In 2015, during the five brief days that Taliban entered Kunduz, her television and radio station was destroyed, and stripped of all equipment.
Shirazi, who had fled to the Afghanistan capital at the time, decided to fight back. With funding help from donors, and a mostly women team of 15, she restarted Roshani radio, broadcasting programmes from 6 am to 2 am, including live Q&As with listeners.
In 2021, Shirazi, her husband and eight-year-old daughter had already left for Kabul when the Taliban took over Kunduz. “They were calling my husband repeatedly, asking us to return, saying that they would not harm us,” she said. But this time, Shirazi said, she knew there was no going back.
“They always accused us of pushing an American agenda… There is no way to work as a journalist in Kunduz now,” Shirazi told The Indian Express from Canada, where she is now trying to start life anew with her family. Her female team members have dispersed too, to Canada and Pakistan.
The handful of men who were in Shirazi’s team are still operating the radio station. “They have to go by the Taliban agenda. They have only Islamic programmes now,” she said.
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