The Taliban government of Afghanistan pledged, Monday, October 14, to prohibit the media from publishing images of living beings, adding that journalists in several provinces had been warned of the gradual application of this measure. “The law applies throughout Afghanistan (…) and it will be implemented gradually,” Saiful Islam Khyber, spokesperson for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). and prevention of vice, arguing that images of living beings were against Islamic law. The Taliban authorities promulgated during the summer a law of thirty-five articles to “promote virtue and prevent vice” among the population, in accordance with Sharia (Islamic law) imposed by them since their return to power in Afghanistan, in 2021. “Coercion has no place in law enforcement,” the PVPV said. “It’s just about giving advice and convincing people that these things are really against Sharia law and should be avoided. » The text contains several measures targeting the media, including a ban on publishing images of living beings, as well as “content hostile to sharia and religion” or which “humiliates Muslims”. However, several aspects of this text have not yet been strictly applied, and the Taliban authorities continue to regularly publish photographs of people on social networks. “So far, efforts are underway in many provinces to implement the media-related articles of the law, but this has not started in all provinces,” Khyber said. He added that “the work has begun” in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar (south), and in the provinces of Helmand (southwest) and Takhar (north-east). Local journalists summoned Journalists in Kandahar told AFP on Monday that they had not received any press release from the ministry and that they had not, for the moment, been arrested by the moral police for taking photos or videos. In the central province of Ghazni on Sunday, PVPV officials summoned local journalists and told them that morality police would begin gradually enforcing the law. They advised image reporting journalists to take photos from further away and film less in order to “get used to it,” a journalist, who did not wish to give his name for fear of reprisals, told AFP. . At a similar meeting, journalists from the central Wardak province were also informed that this rule would be implemented gradually. Images of living beings were banned across the country when it was ruled by Taliban authorities between 1996 and 2001, but a similar decree had not yet been imposed on a large scale since their return to power in 2021. return of the Taliban, Afghanistan had 8,400 media employees, including 1,700 women. There are only 5,100 left, including 560 women, according to sources within the profession. Dozens of media outlets were closed and Afghanistan fell in three years from 122nd to 178th out of 180 in the ranking of the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for press freedom. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Women’s hope dies in Afghanistan Add to your selections Le Monde with AFP Reuse this content
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