The ban’s impact beyond TV broadcasts
On 20 October 2024, Afghanistan International reported that the Taliban are planning to convert RTA national and provincial TV branches into radio stations due to the PVPV Law. The Taliban instead plan to relaunch “Radio Sharia”, which was one the group’s main media outlets during their first stint in power in the 1990s.
Some media outlets also reported on new radio stations established by various Taliban ministries. On 23 October 2024, Khama Press and Afghanistan International reported that the Taliban’s Ministry of Defence had debuted a new radio station, Sada-e-Khalid Radio, based at the 201 Khaled bin Waleed Army Corps in Kunar province. The station will reportedly broadcast religious, ideological, cultural, health and recreational programs. According to Afghanistan International, the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior is also set to launch its own radio station, while GDI plans to take control of Radio Bayan-e-Shamal, previously established and run by NATO forces, and rename it Radio Hurriyat.
The ban also appears to have led to some Taliban entities removing pictures of people from their websites. On 21 October 2024, 8am Media reported that the websites of the Ministries of Higher Education (MoHE) and Justice had removed images of their respective ministers, Neda Mohammad Nadeem and Abdul Hakim Sharayi.
AW noted that there were no photos of either Taliban minister on the homepages of the ministries‘ websites, but Sharayi’s photo was still available on a biography page. Both Nadeem and Sharayi are seen as staunch allies of the Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. Public universities in Kabul and Herat had also removed images of human beings from their websites.
The ban also appears to have affected some social media channels of state-run media, based on an AW analysis of accounts belonging to RTA branches in Kandahar, Wardak, Takhar, Badghis, Daykundi, and Helmand provinces. In Kandahar, the RTA branch either did not post images of people or blurred their faces from 15 August 2024. However, the account shared posts by other RTA channels where human faces are visible.
In Wardak, however, the RTA branch continued to post videos and photos showing people’s faces as of 29 October 2024, despite the ban being implemented there since 14 October 2024. On the other hand, RTA Takhar, Badghis, Daykundi, and Helmand all appear to have complied with the ban since it was issued in the provinces, except for some instances of reposting content from other RTA pages.
In addition, AW investigators noted that MoPVPV has stopped posting videos containing people’s faces on its YouTube channel since July 2024.
Reaction to the ban exposes internal Taliban splits
The ban has also exposed apparent internal splits within the Taliban. On 21 October 2024, Afghanistan International reported that Defence Minister Yaqub Mujahid, Interior Affairs Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and three Deputy Prime Ministers — Mullah Bradar, Abdul Salam Hanafi and Mawlawi Abdul Kabir — opposed the ban as detrimental to the Taliban’s interests.
Meanwhile, a number of pro-Taliban accounts — in particular from the pro-Haqqani faction — shared footage of Jalalaluddin Haqqani, the late head of the Mujahideen Commanders’ Council and founder of the Haqqani Network, recorded in the 1990s. In the footage, Haqqani expresses support for the use of images of living beings in some contexts, in particular if they serve a jihadi purpose.
Prominent pro-Taliban social media activist Mobeen Khan also allegedly criticised the ban on X by sarcastically comparing the Taliban to the regime in North Korea, and saying that pro-Taliban videos he had previously shared would now be considered forbidden.
Remarks
The ban on photography and filming of living beings — part of the PVPV Law — appears to have been implemented to various degrees in at least five provinces since 14 October. This had led to the reported closure of both private and public TV stations, including in Takhar and Badghis, or to broadcasts that feature only audio and text.
Private media representatives are reportedly discussing the impacts of the ban on their outlets with the de facto authorities, who are allegedly planning the eventual nation-wide closure of the public broadcaster RTA. AW’s analysis further shows how the ban has had effects beyond broadcast media, also affecting websites and social media accounts of Taliban-run ministries, universities and media.
The gradual implementation of the ban mirrors previous Taliban practice – for example, the ban on women working for most UN offices was initially implemented in Nangarhar before becoming national in 2023. After the reported closure of RTA in Kandahar on 2 September 2024, AW warned of likely future closures of media outlets. As it stands, Afghanistan risks facing the same complete erasure of visual media as it did during the first era of Taliban rule in the 1990s.
