The dire future of media in Afghanistan – An interesting watch
Over the past 20 years, many independent media outlets have launched in Afghanistan, establishing a semblance of free press. With Afghan journalists now fleeing the country, there is growing fear that the Afghan media landscape will be fundamentally altered.
Former ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award winner and recent Afghanistan bureau chief for US government state funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Samiullah Mahdi warns that soon only Taliban-run news outlets will remain in the country.
During the online panel “Journalists in Afghanistan: An Urgent Crisis,” recently hosted by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), ICFJ Vice President of Content and Community Patrick Butler discussed with Samiullah Mahdi the role international media outlets can play to shed light on Taliban rule, the hardships women journalists there now face and the future of the free press in the country.
“Since the Taliban took over Kabul, independent media editors, reporters and investors are trying to get out of the country,” Mahdi said. “That means that in a few months we will only have Taliban-run media outlets in Afghanistan. Other media workers will accept whatever Taliban is saying and become their mouthpiece, or just leave the country and quit.”
Women journalists at risk
Right now, women journalists in Afghanistan are among the most at-risk populations in the country for reasons of revenge, retribution, and long-standing prejudice against their voices in any public arena.
“The Taliban have a history of being misogynists, being against women’s rights and suppressing any freedom. We remember the 1990s and we knew what was happening in the areas controlled by the Taliban in the past two decades. The same kind of draconian laws and orders will come back to Afghanistan and women will suffer the most,” said Mahdi.
Already, the Taliban have forced women journalists off the air. Others are staying home, fearfully destroying identifying documentation. The Taliban have also begun discriminating based on gender in the country’s classrooms.
“One of my colleagues told me that the Taliban have ordered all universities in the western provinces to segregate students based on gender. Unfortunately, one can foresee that we are going to have another generation of young girls who will not have the opportunity to go to school, to study, and to work outside of their homes,” said Mahdi.
Watch this interesting online discussion:
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