More than 12 thousand journalists leave their jobs in Afghanistan

About 12,000 or two-thirds of Afghan journalists have quit their jobs during the last two years, announced Reporters Without Borders in a report ahead of the second-year anniversary of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

The organization states that more than 80% of female journalists have left this profession, adding that among the 547 media outlets active in Afghanistan in 2021, half of them were closed down after the Taliban took over.

Reporters Without Borders points out the Taliban’s restrictions on the media, and says that editors and journalists in Taliban-dominated Afghanistan must follow the Taliban’s orders regarding the media, “if they want to survive”.

This organization claims that the laws and regulations of the Taliban towards the media pave the way for the tyranny and harassment of journalists and limiting the journalistic activity in this country.

“If the situation continues this way, many media outlets will soon be forced to shut down their operation,” said an official of the Afghan Free Media Support Organization (NAI) to Reporters Without Borders.

During the two years of their rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed extensive restrictions on the media. According to some monitoring bodies, this group has arrested and tortured many journalists.