Afghanistan: Taliban release three Afghan tv employees following reporting of crackdown on foreign media

With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan, the insurgent group has already implemented policies that included a crackdown on the country’s media freedoms. Last week, the insurgent group released three Afghan employees of a tv station following their detainment from their reports regarding the Taliban’s policies on media.

The Taliban has released three Afghan journalists from the country’s largest television station after they were detained for their reports on the group’s new rules have led to imposing restrictions on their media freedoms.

A channel executive said that a report on TOLONews revealed that the Taliban banned all broadcasts of foreign media. The decision to ban foreign media was made by the Taliban-backed Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

The three employees of TOLONews were taken from the station in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul Thursday last week and arrested, said the channel’s head of news, Khpalwak Sapai, who is one of the employees who were arrested by the Taliban. Sapai, along with the station’s legal adviser Nafay Khaleeq were released hours later. News anchor, Bahram Aman, was released the next day after being kept in custody overnight.

“After almost 24 hours, I have been released from prison. I will always be the voice of the people,” Aram said in a post he shared on Facebook.

“Our job is to deliver information to the people,” said Sapai in a statement following Aman’s release. “For this reason, we always suggest that any issue related to the media or TOLOnews be shared through the Ministry of Information and Culture.”

Following the arrests of the three employees, the Taliban’s secret service issued a statement warning against anyone who dares to violate “Islamic principles” or threaten the “mental and psychological security” of the public.

In other related news, the World Happiest Report ranked Afghanistan the unhappiest country in the world in its latest assessment that was published before the United Nations World Happiness Day that took place during the weekend.

Among the 149 countries that were surveyed, Afghanistan ranked last with a happiness rating of 2.5, even before the Taliban regained control of the country back in August. Lebanon was the second to the last rank, followed by Botswana, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.