The Taliban’s ban on the broadcast of live images in Farah Province has forced the province’s state-run television station, RTA, to suspend visual programming and operate solely as an audio outlet, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) said on Thursday.
In a statement, the AFJC said Farah is now the seventh province where the Taliban have officially enforced restrictions on visual content in local media.
Quoting sources, the AFJC reported that the ban was implemented under pressure from the Taliban’s Department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which oversees social and moral regulations. As a result, Farah’s national TV station has ceased all local visual content production.
The station now only broadcasts audio reports, and on social media, it limits its visuals to images of buildings, objects, and government office signboards, the statement said.
A local journalist in Farah told the AFJC that private media outlets and independent journalists have not yet been formally ordered to stop using live images. However, some Taliban officials refuse to participate in video interviews, effectively limiting visual reporting.
The restrictions are part of the Taliban’s 2024 law on the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which imposes strict limitations on personal and social freedoms, including media regulations.
Article 17 of the law explicitly assigns the “moral police” the responsibility of preventing the publication of images of living beings.
While some provinces have reportedly eased certain broadcasting restrictions, the enforcement in Farah marks an expansion of Taliban-imposed media censorship, further restricting access to independent news and information.