KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) reported Tuesday that Taliban have banned the capturing and publication of images of living beings in Bamiyan Province.
According to the AFJC, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a formal letter to local government offices in Bamiyan on April 17, mandating enforcement of the new ban. The directive was announced following a meeting led by Taliban-appointed governor Abdullah Sarhadi and local officials.
The letter, signed by Sarhadi and obtained by the AFJC, orders public offices not to take photographs during events or meetings and prohibits individuals from doing so as well. It warns that violations will be met with “legal action.”
Quoting local sources, the AFJC says that the directive has been circulated widely among government departments in recent days and is already being enforced. Under the new rules, government offices may only produce reports in written or audio formats, without images.
Bamiyan becomes the fifteenth province where the Taliban have banned the publication of images of living beings since August 2023, when they introduced their law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, according to AFJC findings.
The media restrictions affect both state-run and private outlets operating in Bamiyan, including Radio and Television Afghanistan and the Bakhtar State News Agency, as well as local private broadcasters like Bamiyan Radio and Nasim Radio.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed increasingly strict controls on the country’s media, drawing condemnation from press freedom organizations and raising concerns over the future of independent journalism in the country.
