Latest update : 2015-10-19
Two prominent Afghan news stations have become the latest targets of a widening Islamist insurgency with threats to press freedom, women and activists in cities across Afghanistan.
Amid harrowing reports of kidnappings and summary executions during the Taliban’s brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz last month, the Islamic insurgents branded two Afghan news stations, Tolo News and 1 TV “military objectives” in a statement released October 12.
The Taliban said that reporters and offices of the channels would be considered “enemy personnel” and would therefore be “eliminated”.
Both TV stations had reported allegations of rape by Taliban fighters in Kunduz, prompting the Taliban to accuse them of running a US-sponsored propaganda campaign.
But Tolo News, Afghanistan's first 24-hour news channel, told FRANCE 24 that the stories that were critical of the Taliban, particularly reports of rape, could be independently corroborated by the UN, Amnesty International and the Afghan government.
“It took us by surprise, it’s unprecedented for a media organisation,” said its director, Lotfullah Najafizada, of the attempt to intervene in one of Afghanistan’s major television channels.
The Afghan media responded by condemning the threats and pledging to deny coverage to the Taliban if further threats to press freedom were issued or if any journalists were harmed.
Ilias Alami of the Afghan Journalists’ Safety Committee told FRANCE 24 that since the Taliban’s brief occupation of Kunduz the situation across Afghanistan has worsened.
“It was very hard for journalists to stay. Many of them, including activists, fled and came to Kabul in big numbers, moving on to other provinces.”
Women’s rights again under threat
Despite the Taliban’s attempt to project a softened stance on women's rights, harrowing accounts have emerged of death squads methodically targeting a host of female rights workers and journalists in Kunduz just hours after the city fell on September 28.
Insurgents destroyed three Kunduz-based radio stations run by women, looted a girls school and ransacked offices working for female empowerment, stealing computers and destroying equipment, according to activists and local residents.
Women activists who fled Kunduz told AFP that the Taliban used a “hit list”, including names, photos and mobile phone clips of their targets. Many received calls and text messages containing death threats.
Alami said that although he had heard reports of looting of women journalists offices, these could not be officially confirmed without fact-finding monitors in Kunduz.
The women’s testimonies hark back to the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan when women were relegated to the shadows and brutally repressed.
Heather Barr, senior researcher on women's rights in Asia for Human Rights Watch, told FRANCE 24 there was a clear disconnect between official statements from the Taliban which had attempted to project a moderate view on women’s rights and what was actually happening on the ground.
“They’ve tried to send a message that they are moderate through informal talks with Afghan women who they met with for the first time earlier this year,” Barr said.
“But there’s no question things are deteriorating both in terms of access to employment and freedom of movement for women. Women’s ability to work and participate in life is in jeopardy."
An additional concern, said Barr, was the inevitable shifting of resources by international aid organisations away from Afghanistan and towards “higher priority” crises such as the migration crisis now facing Europe.
Press freedom
The threat is a further complication for local journalists working in a country ranked 122 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index, a measure of media freedom compiled by the group Reporters Without Borders.
The Afghan Journalists' Safety Committee said there had been 67 cases of threats and violence against journalists since the beginning of 2015.
In spite of the threat, Alami said that the commitment and morale of journalists was still very high.
“If things change in the next month we might see a new dynamic way for journalists to work,” he said. “But journalists have endured hardships for the last fourteen years to provide well-balanced reporting.”
Najafizada said Tolo News would continue to report as it had always done, unhindered by attempts to steer its editorial coverage.
“It’s another challenge for the growth of press freedom in this country and a question all of us have had to address over the past 15 years,” he said.
“Afghanistan constitutionally adopted press freedom and there is a whole generation that’s grown up with it as part of their identity. They see information as critical and so it’s for this generation to ensure that the country has a free press,” Najafizada added.
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