He had denounced the ban by the Taliban on the broadcasting of foreign drama series, so popular in the country. But for the Taliban, journalist Bahram Aman, one of the country’s most famous presenters, had the word too much. Thursday evening, they came to arrest him at the premises of the ToloNews channel, at the same time as the director of information Khpalwak Sapai and a legal adviser, Nafi Khaleeq. Before finally releasing them all three, in the face of condemnations in particular from the UN.
“All three were arrested for relaying information that authorities had banned TV channels from airing foreign drama series,” explained the country’s first news channel, in a press release appeared yesterday. Khpalwak Sapai and Nafi Khaleeq were then quickly released, before Bahram Aman was also released twenty-four hours later. He first announced it on his Facebook page: “After almost twenty-four hours, I was released from prison,” he wrote, promising to “always remain the voice of the people”. A member of his family, on condition of anonymity, claimed that the radical Islamists who had returned to power since August “had already threatened him” in the past.
ToloNews, a rare independent Afghan channel
The ToloNews channel first expressed doubts about the veracity of his release, before finally confirming it as the journalist finally showed up at the television headquarters. For good reason, this is not the first time that journalists have been targeted by the new masters of Afghanistan, in particular those of the Afghan channel ToloNews, created in 2010. A rare independent channel in the country’s media landscape, it has been resisting since the Taliban took power last August, although several of its journalists have been murdered or imprisoned in the past. “We will not allow anyone to trample on our Islamic and national values and threaten the security of our people and our nation,” reacted in a press release the Taliban intelligence services, shortly after the release of Bahram Aman.
Intervened only a few hours after the UN vote establishing a formal and lasting relationship with the country, the arrest of the journalist sounded like a provocation in the eyes of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Manua). She then reacted on Twitterasking “the release of all those taken away by the armed men and the cessation of intimidation and threats against journalists and independent media”. For good reason, the UN has just opened a new chapter in relations with the country by validating the new mandate of Manua in the country for one year, until March 17, 2023.
Journalists, critical voices and feminist activists targeted
But despite their promises to be more moderate this time around, the Islamists have in recent months arrested journalists, voices critical of the regime and feminist activists who were demanding the right to work or education. Since they came to power on August 15, at least fifty media professionals have been questioned or arrested by the Afghan police and the intelligence services (Istikhbarat). These arrests, which are accompanied by violencecan last from a few hours to nearly a week according to Reporter Without Borders.
And the muzzling of the country’s rare independent media has increased in recent months. In November, the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice banned the broadcasting of television series showing women, unless they promote an Islamic theme. In recent days, several Afghan television channels have stopped broadcasting series. But this directive was variously implemented and the Islamists now seem to want to apply it more strictly, which ToLoNews has decried publicly.
Under their previous regime, between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban had banned television, cinema and all forms of entertainment, deemed immoral.