Afghan media face daunting challenges since Taliban takeover, panelists report

Afghanistan’s media have faced a year of challenges with censorship, arrests, and restrictions on women journalists since the withdrawal of American troops last August. As a result, many experienced reporters have left the country, while others continue to report under increasing pressure, according to a panel of reporters from Afghanistan and the United States.

In an Aug. 26 online discussion co-hosted by the National Press Club’s Press Freedom and International Correspondents Committees, the panelists discussed the challenges facing Afghan journalists under the Taliban’s rule, as well as abroad, and what can be done to support their work. The one-hour discussion was moderated by Al-Monitor’s Elizabeth Hagedorn.

“Right now, unfortunately, the country is full of stories, but all of these stories are sadness and it’s heartbreaking,” said Zahra Joya, an Afghan journalist in exile, and the founder of Rukhshana Media, the country’s first female-led media outlet.

Nearly half of the media outlets have been shot down and ceased operation since Taliban’s takeover, Joya said. Thankfully, she added, some Afghan media are operating in exile and are trying to amplify the voices of people of Afghanistan.

For Mustafa Kazemi, a veteran war correspondent with more than a decade of reporting experience in Afghanistan for international outlets, to say that there are struggles ahead of Afghan media and journalists right now “is understatement.” Citing records from Reporters without Borders, he said, more than 60 percent of journalists have lost their jobs or fled the country since the Taliban takeover.

And there has been a budget cut. As he put it, “a lots of donors have discontinued funding various Afghan media outlets because they would not be able to report as freely as they were mandated by their donor prior to the collapse of Afghanistan.”

When the city of Kabul fell on August 15, 2021, “that was when everybody realized that there is going to be one of the major damages to the country -- on the side of the various other factors -- is the freedom of media,” Kazemi said, referring to Taliban’s complicated history with press freedom.

When Taliban first time took over Afghanistan in the 1990s, Kazemi recalled, there “were pretty much several cases of violence against foreign journalists, let alone Afghan journalists.”

“It has been a trend to the Taliban to disallow any flow of accurate information,” he added.

Working under Taliban has been especially difficult for female reporters, according to journalist Nazira Karimi, television presenter, author, and entrepreneur from Afghanistan, who is currently based in Washington.Every day the Taliban creates new rules for women, especially for female journalists, she explained.

“Of course it’s difficult for them, they cannot raise their voices, they hide from one place to the other… And of course if you’re not safe, if your family is not safe, how can you work?” she asked.

Having been covering Afghanistan is the U.S. capital, Karimi said, every day she gets many phone calls from fellow female Afghan reporters who appeal for help given her access to the U.S. government institutions. “Their expectation is ‘Nazira, please safe our lives, our families’ lives,’ …I feel so sorry for them that I cannot do anything.”

Karimi urged the international community to “help Afghan people generally, and especially to Afghan female journalists, because it’s very difficult for them. ...  Although we have a very brave women in Afghanistan, they also fight for their rights.”

Rebecca Blumenstein, deputy managing editor of The New York Times, said that one challenging question moving forward is about the role of many Afghan journalists who are now out of the country, and their role in future reporting.

The Times has to work very carefully with freelancers and do whatever it can to protect them. she said. "But," she added, “it’s also quite striking that with current technologies, we can and we have continued to report what’s happening on the ground in Afghanistan outside of Afghanistan.”

Meanwhile, questions facing many Afghan reporters abroad listed by Blumenstein include: What will be economically viable? What should news organizations do? Will there be different kinds of wire services or is there a world where there will be a new model of reporting in war zones that explicitly includes people who are not in the country and will keep people employed?

Blumenstein highlighted the role of journalism schools in accepting Afghan journalists, as some have graciously done so.