KABUL – Kementerian Informasi dan Kebudayaan Taliban pada Selasa berkata ia menggantung stesen radio wanita Afghanistan, memetik “peruntukan tanpa kebenaran” kandungan dan pengaturcaraan kepada saluran TV luar negara.
Ini kali kedua pihak berkuasa menutup saluran kerana didakwa bekerja dengan media asing.
Kementerian itu berkata Radio Begum melanggar dasar penyiaran dan menggunakan lesennya secara tidak wajar.
“Keputusan ini dibuat selepas beberapa pelanggaran, termasuk penyediaan kandungan dan pengaturcaraan tanpa kebenaran kepada saluran televisyen berpangkalan asing,” kata kementerian itu, sambil menambah ia akan menyemak semua dokumen diperlukan untuk menentukan masa depan stesen itu.
Radio Begum dilancarkan pada Hari Wanita Antarabangsa pada Mac 2021, lima bulan sebelum Taliban merampas kuasa di tengah-tengah pengunduran tentera AS dan NATO yang huru-hara.
Kandungan stesen itu dihasilkan sepenuhnya oleh wanita Afghanistan. Saluran satelit saudaranya, Begum TV, beroperasi dari Perancis dan menyiarkan program pendidikan yang merangkumi kurikulum sekolah Afghanistan dari gred tujuh hingga 12.
Kumpulan hak asasi manusia, termasuk Reporters without Borders, mengutuk penggantungan pada Selasa dan menuntut ia dibatalkan.
Sejak pengambilalihan mereka, Taliban telah mengecualikan wanita daripada pendidikan, pelbagai jenis pekerjaan, dan ruang awam. Wartawan, terutama wanita, telah kehilangan pekerjaan mereka apabila Taliban mengetatkan cengkaman mereka terhadap landskap media.
Dalam indeks kebebasan akhbar 2024 daripada Reporters without Borders, Afghanistan berada di kedudukan 178 daripada 180 negara. Tahun sebelum itu ia berada di kedudukan 152.
Kementerian Informasi tidak mengenal pasti saluran TV asing yang dikatakan sedang bekerjasama dengan Radio Begum.
Mei lalu, Taliban memberi amaran kepada wartawan dan pakar di Afghanistan untuk menghentikan kerjasama mereka dengan TV Antarabangsa Afghanistan.
Ia adalah kali pertama mereka memberitahu orang ramai untuk tidak bekerjasama dengan cawangan secara spesifik.
AN-AP
The Taliban suspend Afghan women’s radio station for providing content to overseas TV channel
KABUL – The Taliban’s information and culture ministry said Tuesday it suspended an Afghan women’s radio station, citing “unauthorized provision” of content and programming to an overseas TV channel.
It’s the second time authorities have shuttered an outlet for allegedly working with foreign media.
The ministry said Radio Begum violated broadcasting policy and improperly used its license.
“This decision comes after several violations, including the unauthorized provision of content and programming to a foreign-based television channel,” the ministry said, adding it will review all necessary documents to determine the station’s future.
Radio Begum launched on International Women’s Day in March 2021, five months before the Taliban seized power amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops.
The station’s content is produced entirely by Afghan women. Its sister satellite channel, Begum TV, operates from France and broadcasts educational programs that cover the Afghan school curriculum from seventh to 12th grade.
Rights groups, including Reporters without Borders, condemned Tuesday’s suspension and demanded it be reversed.
Since their takeover, the Taliban have excluded women from education, many kinds of work, and public spaces. Journalists, especially women, have lost their jobs as the Taliban tighten their grip on the media landscape.
In the 2024 press freedom index from Reporters without Borders, Afghanistan ranks 178 out of 180 countries. The year before that it ranked 152.
The information ministry did not identify the foreign TV channel it said Radio Begum was working with.
Last May, the Taliban warned journalists and experts in Afghanistan to cease their collaboration with Afghanistan International TV.
It was the first time they had told people not to cooperate with a specific outlet.
AN-AP
