Voice of America announced that its radio broadcasts are now banned inside Afghanistan by order of the Taliban. According to the Voice of America (VOA) website, the order, which applies to the radio broadcasts of VOA’s Afghan service and Azadi Radio (an extension of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) took effect as of December 1, 2022. It applies to FM and MW (medium wave) radio broadcasts from their stations based in Afghanistan.
Abdulhaq Himmad, the head of media monitoring of the Ministry of Information and Culture of the Taliban, has stated that the broadcasts of Azadi Radio have been stopped in 13 major cities of Afghanistan due to non-observance of journalistic principles and one-sided broadcasts.
Before imposing this restriction, VOA’s Afghan radio services broadcasted 12 hours a day (6 hours in Dari and 6 hours in Pashto) from inside Afghanistan on 15 FM channels and two MW channels, VOA says.
The suspension of the radio broadcasts comes after the Taliban previously banned the TV broadcasts of the Voice of America, which was operating in Afghanistan under the name of Ashna TV, in March.
After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, they have imposed severe restrictions on the freedom of speech and media activities. According to the latest report of Reporters Without Borders, at least 219 print, audio, and visual media outlets have stopped working in Afghanistan in the last year. As well, Reporters Without Borders says that Afghanistan has also lost 60 percent of its journalists.
