KABUL: Beaten, homes raided, turned away from work for being a woman: the complaints made by some Afghan journalists in recent days are sowing doubt about assurances made by their new Taliban rulers that independent media would be allowed.
In its first press conference since capturing the capital Kabul, the Taliban militant movement said on Tuesday it would allow free media and jobs for women — banned when it was last in power from 1996 to 2001.
“It has become clear there is a gap between action and words,” Sahar Nasari, a presenter on state-owned Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday in his native Pashto.
Nasari said Taliban members took his camera and beat up his colleague while he was trying to film a story in Kabul on Thursday.
Journalists are targeted around the world, especially in times of upheaval. But the issue is a sensitive one in Afghanistan, where an open media, free speech and women’s rights are widely seen as hard-fought gains after two decades of war.
A Taliban spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on accusations that it has harassed journalists, and in particular women in the profession.
Several media watchdogs have also reported incidents of Afghan journalists being beaten, harassed or raided at their homes in recent days.
“The Taliban needs to stand by its public commitment to allow a free and independent media at a time when Afghanistan’s people desperately need accurate news and information,” said Steven Butler of New York-based media rights group, Committee to Protect Journalists.
Saad Mohseni, the head of media group MOBY which runs Afghanistan’s largest private broadcaster Tolo news, told Reuters his journalists had not been harmed since the Taliban came to power, and that his female reporters continued to work.
In one Tolo broadcast this week that would have been unthinkable during the Taliban’s previous rule, a female Tolo presenter interviewed a Taliban official.
Still, Mohseni said the future remained uncertain.
“The laissez-faire approach is more a reflection of not having enough bandwidth than a specific policy that they (the Taliban) will allow media to carry on business as usual,” he said. “So I wouldn’t get too excited. It’s only been 72 hours since they took over the city.”
’REGIME CHANGE’
The Coalition for Women in Journalism, an international advocacy group, said they had been inundated with requests for help from female journalists in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power, and were in contact with multiple women who said they felt threatened in their homes.
An editor at Pajhwok News Agency in Kabul said on condition of anonymity that a Taliban official had advised his 18 female reporters to work from home until the movement had finalized its rules on women at work.
Presenter Shabnam Dawran, who had long been the face of state-owned RTA, said she was turned away from her job after being told “the regime has changed.”
The Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday that media must not work against Islamic or national “values,” and that women could work “within the framework of Islam.”
Some journalists worry that restrictions and censorship could deal a blow to a flourishing Afghan media scene that has changed dramatically since the Taliban were last in power.
From a time when a single state-owned radio station broadcast mainly calls to prayer and religious teachings, the country now has an estimated 170 radio stations, over 100 newspapers and dozens of TV stations.
Some residents say things are already changing, with TV stations removing music and entertainment shows and Western programs.
One reporter at Bakhtar news agency, the official state news agency, said he “almost froze” when an armed Taliban member walked into the newsroom on Thursday.
“He walked straight into the editor’s room and later we were told that the website would need a fresh look and how stories are presented will be discussed soon,” the reporter said.
Actions or words: Afghan journalists question Taliban’s free press pledge
https://arab.news/wsesj
Actions or words: Afghan journalists question Taliban’s free press pledge
- In its first press conference, Taliban said it would allow free media and jobs for women
- Watchdogs have reported Afghan journalists being beaten, harassed or raided at their homes this week
More than 100 dead in torrential rain and floods across southern Africa
- South Africa has reported at least 19 deaths in two of its northern provinces following heavy rains
- Tourists and staff members were evacuated this week by helicopter from flooded camps
JOHANNESBURG: Torrential rains and flooding have killed more than 100 people in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and authorities warned Friday that more severe weather was expected across several countries in southern Africa.
South Africa has reported at least 19 deaths in two of its northern provinces following heavy rains that began last month and led to severe flooding.
Tourists and staff members were evacuated this week by helicopter from flooded camps to other areas in the renowned Kruger National Park, which is closed to visitors while parts of it are inaccessible because of washed out roads and bridges, South Africa’s national parks agency said.
In neighboring Mozambique, the Institute for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction said 103 people had died in an unusually severe rainy season since late last year. Those deaths were from various causes including electrocution from lightning strikes, drowning in floods, infrastructure collapse caused by the severe weather and cholera, the institute said.
The worst flooding in Mozambique has been in the central and southern regions, where more than 200,000 people have been affected, thousands of homes have been damaged, while tens of thousands face evacuation, the World Food Program said.
Zimbabwe’s disaster management agency said that 70 people have died and more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed in heavy rains since the beginning of the year, while infrastructure including schools, roads and bridges collapsed.
Flooding has also hit the island nation of Madagascar off the coast of Africa as well as Malawi and Zambia. Authorities in Madagascar said 11 people died in floods since late November.
The United States’ Famine Early Warning System said flooding was reported or expected in at least seven southern African nations, possibly due to the presence of the La Nina weather phenomenon that can bring heavy rains to parts of southeastern Africa.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited flood-stricken areas in the northern Limpopo province on Thursday and said that region had received around 400 millimeters (more than 15 inches) of rain in less than a week. He said that in one district he visited “there are 36 houses that have just been wiped away from the face of the Earth. Everything is gone ... the roofs, the walls, the fences, everything.”
The flooding occurred in the Limpopo and Mpumalanaga provinces in the north, and the South African Weather Service issued a red-level 10 alert for parts of the country for Friday, warning of more heavy rain and flooding that poses a threat to lives and could cause widespread infrastructure damage.
The huge Kruger wildlife park, which covers some 22,000 square kilometers (7,722 square miles) across the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, has been impacted by severe flooding and around 600 tourists and staff members have been evacuated from camps to high-lying areas in the park, Kruger National Park spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said.
He couldn’t immediately say how many people there were in the park, which has been closed to visitors after several rivers burst their banks and flooded camps, restaurants and other areas. The parks agency said precautions were being taken and no deaths or injuries had been reported at Kruger.
The South African army sent helicopters to rescue other people trapped on the roofs of their houses or in trees in northern parts of the country, it said. An army helicopter also rescued border post officers and police officers stranded at a flooded checkpoint on the South Africa-Zimbabwe border.
Southern Africa has experienced a series of extreme weather events in recent years, including devastating cyclones and a scorching drought that caused a food crisis in parts of a region that often suffers food shortages.
The World Food Program said more than 70,000 hectares (about 173,000 acres) of crops in Mozambique, including staples such as rice and corn, have been waterlogged in the current flooding, worsening food insecurity for thousands of small-scale farmers who rely on their harvests for food.
