Three Afghan radio journalists arrested over music and women’s phone calls

The Taliban government has arrested reporters from three radio stations in eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province for allegedly playing music and contacting female listeners.

Center of Afghan Journalists Condemning the action in a statement, he asked the Crime Prevention Department to release the arrested persons immediately and unconditionally.

The Center’s statement said that “Naz Radio journalist Ismail Saadat, Iqra Radio journalist Waheedullah Masoom and Olus Ghag Radio (Voice of the People) journalist Ehsanullah Tasal were called to the office at 10 a.m. local time, where they were was arrested.’

A journalist in Khost province told the Afghanistan Journalist Center about the arrest. He said that these three journalists were transferred to Khost Security Command at 1.30 pm on the same day and have been detained since then.

According to the Center, another source in Khost said that the Directorate of Public Prohibition had initially invited the directors of these three radio stations on the pretext of attending a joint meeting, but instead of the directors of the radio stations, the three reporters went to the meeting.

According to this source, the journalists were told at the meeting that they would be taken to court for violating the ban on broadcasting music and contacting female listeners.

The department in Khost province confirmed the matter in a message to a joint WhatsApp group of journalists.

The message said, without naming the arrested journalists or the media concerned, that ‘the management has repeatedly advised the media not to broadcast music or phone calls in the background of entertainment programmes. Contact with women is completely forbidden.’

The department of Khost province added: ‘However, according to this description, several media outlets violated and today they were sentenced by this department to prison and also in the future for the crime of non-implementation of the rules of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban). will present to the court.

Music has been banned across the country since the Taliban came back to power, but a ban on girls’ and women’s phone calls to the media is a new issue that has been enforced.

There are currently 15 radio stations and three private television stations operating in Khost province, along with national (state) radio and television. Due to the closure of schools above sixth grade for girls across the country, including Khost, the province has recently seen an increase in media-based school lesson education programs.

Several local media officials in Khost say that to better promote educational programs, it is important to answer questions from the audience, and sometimes music is used in the background of certain programs.

The Afghanistan Journalist Center has condemned the summoning and arrest of journalists or media representatives in Khost for giving the girls the opportunity to make telephone calls or playing background music in programs as an illegal act and against the Public Media Law. The reporters have been demanded to be released as soon as possible.

Also expressing serious concern over the possibility of further interference in the affairs of the independent media through illegal directives and the possibility of increasing restrictions on their work, revoke these directives on the basis of the Public Media Law and the rights of journalists and media. Compliance has also been demanded.

Based on the Public Media Law, which is also considered applicable by the Taliban government, journalists are free to carry out their professional duties.

After returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban imposed many restrictions on the media, and due to this, about 50 percent of the media stopped working and hundreds of journalists, TV presenters and cinema owners left Afghanistan and took refuge in different countries. has taken

The Ministry of Information and Culture under the leadership of Khairullah Khairkhawa, the Ministry of Welfare and Prohibition under the leadership of Muhammad Khalid Hanafi, and the Intelligence Department of the Taliban under the leadership of Abdul Haq Wasiq are the three institutions that control and monitor the activities of the media.

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These three institutions banned serials, films, music, even background music, publication of critical material and broadcasting of interviews with critics of the Taliban in Afghanistan’s domestic media. Since the Taliban’s return to power, dozens of media officials, reporters and producers of television programs have been arrested, threatened and imprisoned for violating Taliban laws.

Last week, the Taliban’s media commission, headed by the group’s government minister of information and culture Khairullah Khairkhwa, announced that television channels Beria, owned by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and Noor, owned by Salahuddin Rabbani, had The broadcast has been stopped due to violations of the rules.

According to the rules made by the Taliban for the media, women must appear in front of the media wearing a mask and must cover their hair and hands completely, and their clothes must also be black. These restrictions have reduced the number of female anchors and announcers in the Afghan media, and a small number of anchors are working with fixed rules.

Despite widespread protests against the laws imposed by the Taliban inside and outside Afghanistan, the movement’s officials have not only not changed those laws, but have imposed new restrictions that make the process of accessing information more difficult.

Although the laws established by the Taliban do not say anything about phone calls to radio and television presenters from female listeners, some Taliban commanders and local officials have imposed arbitrary restrictions on local media in this regard.

According to observers, banning female audience from calling the media seems to be aimed at disrupting the educational programs of these media.