Expansion of the Ban on Broadcasting Images of Living Beings to Faryab and Daikundi

The Afghanistan Journalists Center(AFJC) reports that the Taliban’s Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has officially banned the broadcasting of images of living beings in the provinces of Faryab and Daikundi.

According to the AFJC’s report, during a meeting on Tuesday, April 29, the head of the Faryab Promotion of Virtue office, in the presence of the provincial governor, announced the enforcement of Article 17 of the Virtue and Vice Law, which prohibits the publication of images of living beings, and issued an order for its immediate implementation. Simultaneously, the Daikundi office visited local media outlets and demanded journalists cease publishing such images.

Local journalists in both provinces stated that the order has already been enforced, and now only audio or written reports—without any visual depiction of living beings—are permitted.

With this new decision, the number of provinces where media are officially banned from broadcasting images of living beings has reached 17 out of the country’s 34 provinces.

The AFJC has expressed serious concern over the expansion of this ban, stating that such restrictions violate the principles of freedom of expression and the national media law. It warned that this could severely restrict media operations, potentially leading to media shutdowns and journalist unemployment.

The organization has called on the ruling authorities to reconsider this decision and to create an environment where the media can continue their work freely and without fear.