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Taliban rulers have suspended Afghanistan’s solely girls’s radio channel after raiding it, the nation’s info and tradition ministry mentioned.
The hardline Islamist group accused the channel of “unauthorised provision” of content material and programming to an abroad TV channel, additional cracking down on the previous few pockets of employed Afghan girls who’re already below scrutiny and stress to function below Taliban rule.
Radio Begum, based mostly in Kabul, launched 5 months earlier than the Taliban took management of Afghanistan in 2021. It confirmed the raid and mentioned Taliban officers from the knowledge and tradition ministry searched its premises on Tuesday and restrained employees.
Taliban officers “seized computer systems, laborious drives, recordsdata and telephones from Begum employees, together with Begum feminine journalists, and took into custody two male workers of the organisation who don’t maintain any senior administration place”, it mentioned in a press release.
Radio Begum’s content material is produced totally by Afghan girls. Whereas the Taliban didn’t point out which overseas TV channel was concerned, Radio Begum’s sister satellite tv for pc channel Begum TV operates from France and broadcasts academic programmes for the Afghan college curriculum from seventh to twelfth grade.
Radio Begum broadcast at the very least six hours of classes a day, together with subjects of well being, psychology and religious programmes tailor-made for ladies throughout components of Afghanistan earlier than its shutdown on Tuesday.
In line with the Taliban, Radio Begum was violating broadcasting coverage and improperly used its license.
“This choice comes after a number of violations, together with the unauthorised provision of content material and programming to a foreign-based tv channel,” the Taliban’s info and broadcast ministry mentioned with out disclosing when the radio station will likely be allowed to operate usually.
The ministry mentioned it would evaluation all needed paperwork to find out the station’s future.
Radio Begum has denied being concerned in any political exercise and mentioned it was “dedicated to serving the Afghan individuals and extra particularly the Afghan girls”.
It’s the second time the Taliban has shuttered an outlet it accuses of working with overseas media. In Might final yr, the Taliban warned journalists and consultants in Afghanistan to finish their collaboration with Afghanistan Worldwide TV, an unbiased broadcast service in exile reporting on the war-hit nation.
Human rights teams have referred to as on the Taliban to revoke the radio station’s suspension. Afghanistan ranks 178 out of 180 nations, in accordance with the 2024 press freedom index from Reporters with out Borders, an additional slip from 2023 when it ranked 152.
