Taliban atrocities on Afghan media continue as TV channel converted to religious Seminary in Balkh
Jun 04, 2022
Kabul [Afghanistan], June 4 : Media watchdogs have called out the Taliban for another crackdown imposed by the organization as TV channel Metra in Balkh province of Afghanistan has been converted into a religious seminary.
Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August last year, its atrocities on media houses have continued, private TV channel Metra being the latest that has been transformed into a religious outlet to prioritize Islamic sentiments among the Afghan crowd, TOLOnews reported.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, the acting Minister of education, Noorullah Munir, said that the Islamic Emirate prioritizes attention on Islamic education.
"We have 20,000 schools across Afghanistan, but the seminaries registered with the Islamic Emirate are not more than 1,000," he said.
The Metra TV Channel formerly broadcast several programs and is now a seminary for more than 1,000 students.
"Replacing a media outlet complex with a religious seminary is considered an unfair action for journalists. We call on the Islamic Emirate to help in reopening media outlets that were closed after the fall of the former government," said Ahmad Yar Mujroh, a member of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA).
Metra TV broadcast for more than a decade but stopped its operations After the Islamic Emirate came to power in Afghanistan, Metra TV which broadcast for more than a decade in the country stopped its operations for an indefinite period of time.
A recent survey by the Afghanistan Journalists Federation, reviewed by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), found that before the fall of Kabul, around 4,090 Afghan male journalists and 979 female journalists were active in Afghanistan.
Six months later, an estimated 2,091 male journalists and 243 female journalists are still working in the country. In every respect, Afghanistan's once-thriving media ecosystem is declining rapidly under Taliban rule.
Furthermore, the attacks on Afghan Journalists and media workers, including imprisonment, harassment, and assault, have significantly increased since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. An estimated 1,000 journalists have fled the country since August, with threats, harsh restrictions, and economic collapse leading to mass closures of media outlets.
