Beloved shows removed from the airwaves. A television station cutting from a news report of a story about a pregnant police officer who was reportedly fatally shot by the Taliban. A radio editor telling his colleagues to edit out anti-Taliban cheers from coverage of demonstrations in the capital.
Afghanistan¡¯s vibrant free press and media industry, once celebrated as a success story and labeled one of the country¡¯s most important achievements of the past two decades, has abruptly been transformed after the Taliban takeover of the country. Now, its survival is threatened by physical assaults, self-censorship and a dwindling journalist population less than a month after the Taliban seized control of Kabul and began enforcing their hard-line Islamist policies.
The Taliban¡¯s crackdown on the free press was even more evident Wednesday after two Afghan journalists were detained and violently assaulted for covering a protest in Kabul. Photos showed the backsides of both reporters covered with bruises and gashes from being whipped repeatedly with cables, sparking an international outcry.
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