The U.N. is raising the alarm about a Taliban crackdown on peaceful protests, many of them by women demanding equal rights, and journalists. In one case, two Afghan television reporters were beaten with iron rods by Taliban fighters at a police station.
Tagi Daryabi said he and a colleague were covering a protest earlier this week by women demanding their rights from Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers. Taliban fighters stopped the two journalists, bound their hands and dragged them away to a police station in Kabul’s District Three.
It said reports point to an increasing use of force by the Taliban “against those involved in or reporting on the demonstrations.”“It’s very dangerous for me to stand up to them. The Taliban say the media is free, but how can they say that when they are beating me and my colleagues?” he said. “We cannot just stop our work.”
In the weeks since, women have held multiple protests for their rights, almost all of them broken up violently by Taliban fighters. Two men were killed last week when Taliban opened fire on a women’s rights protest in the western city of Herat. Journalists have been harassed at the rallies, including another cameramen who was beaten.
“My own feeling is that there seems to be a disconnect between the leadership and...the rank-and-file type commanders, who are doing this on the ground,” said Saad Mohsini, executive director of Moby Media Group, which owns TOLO TV. “The way they behave reflects perhaps, not the official Taliban media policy, but more the attitude of that particular commander.”
Mohsini said the media needs guarantees and protection. He called for a commission including both the Taliban information ministry officials and representatives of the media to hear complaints from both sides. One difference now is that those leaders have a global exposure they didn’t have during their earlier time in power.
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