The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged the Taliban to lift its restrictive prohibition on the airing of political and economic programs by local Afghan media outlets on Friday. According to the CPJ, the prohibition includes all live and recorded political and economic conversations, requiring that this type of content obtain prior authorization from Taliban officials before broadcasting.

The ban reflects a trend of heightened media censorship under Taliban control, which has greatly restricted press and expression freedoms in Afghanistan. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has noted a significant decline in media freedoms since the Taliban takeover in 2021. Human Rights Watch has documented several incidents where journalists were harassed, detained, and physically abused for attempting to cover sensitive issues. Amnesty International has also detailed the Taliban’s arbitrary detention of journalists and the closure of media outlets as part of a broader crackdown on freedom of expression.

International law safeguards the right to pursue, obtain, and share information and ideas via any medium. These rights are guaranteed under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Afghanistan is a signatory. The Taliban’s media censorship has faced global criticism, with observers concerned about the decline of civil rights and the curtailment of fundamental democratic values. The CPJ and various human rights groups have highlighted the necessity for global interventions to compel the Taliban to comply with international human rights standards.