The Taliban Ministry of Morality Afghanistan pledged on Monday to gradually implement a law that prohibits the media from publishing images of any living being.
“The law applies to everything.” Afghanistan (…) and will be applied gradually”said to AFP the spokesman for the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saiful Islam Khyberaccording to which the images of beings alive They are contrary to Islamic law.
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He government taliban recently enacted a package of 35 articles of law to “promote virtue and prevent vice” among the population, in compliance with Sharia (Islamic law) imposed since his return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
The text contains several measures directed to the media of communication, including the prohibition of post images of beings alive, “hostile content to sharia and to religion” or what “humiliate Muslims.”
However, some aspects of the new law have not yet been strictly implemented.
The authorities indicated that they are informing journalists of the progressive application of the measure.
In the province of Ghazniin the center of the country, officials from the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice called on Sunday to the press local to announce that the rule was going to begin to be applied.
They advised reporters to take images from further away or to stop filming to “get used“, a journalist, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
Similar meetings took place in other parts of the country.
The publication of images of beings alive was already prohibited under the previous government talibanfrom 1996 to 2001.
Although they had not reimposed this law on a large scale since returning to power in 2021, the taliban They already applied some forms of censorship sporadically.
For example, merchants were already forced to cross out women’s faces on posters or advertisements, to cover the heads of mannequins in shop windows with plastic bags, or to cover the eyes of men. fish represented on restaurant menus.
When the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan had 8,400 employees in the media of communication, including 1,700 women. Now there are only 5,100, including 560 women, according to sources in the profession.
In addition, dozens of media of communication and, in three years, Afghanistan has gone from 122nd to 178th place, out of 180, in the classification of freedom of press from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
