The Afghanistan Journalists Center has announced that the Taliban are considering banning journalists from using smartphones as well. The media watchdog warns that such a measure could further restrict access to information and hinder media operations across the country.
In a statement released on Wednesday, June 18, the center described the potential ban on smartphone use by journalists as part of a broader policy aimed at tightening control over freedom of expression and access to information.
According to information published by the organization, Hedayatullah Hedayat, head of the state-run Bakhtar News Agency, which operates under Taliban administration, has discussed the matter with the agency’s employees.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center reported that a journalist at Bakhtar News Agency said staff members had been instructed that, should the ban be implemented, they would be required to use email instead of smartphones for exchanging information and submitting news reports.
Another Bakhtar journalist told the center that on June 10, Hedayatullah Hedayat sent a message through the agency’s WhatsApp group, advising correspondents stationed in various provinces to continue their professional communications via email if the smartphone ban takes effect.
Meanwhile, a local journalist in Khost Province told the Afghanistan Journalists Center that since smartphones were prohibited for Taliban officials and government employees in the province about a week ago, even the limited and controlled flow of information that previously existed has come to a halt.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center strongly condemned the move and warned about its potential consequences for citizens’ and media organizations’ access to information.
The issue comes amid a series of broader media restrictions. Earlier, the Taliban ordered a ban on the publication of images of living beings in 25 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Following the implementation of the directive, dozens of local television stations ceased their visual broadcasts and converted into radio outlets, while a number of journalists and visual content producers lost their jobs.
In its statement, the Afghanistan Journalists Center emphasized that imposing such restrictions in the age of advanced technology and artificial intelligence reflects an increasing effort to limit the free flow of information and media activity.
Previously, on June 7, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, reportedly issued a verbal directive during a meeting with several Taliban governors in Kandahar, ordering a ban on smartphone use by government employees.
More recently, the Military Affairs Department of the Taliban’s Supreme Court issued a decree prohibiting the use of mobile phones by all civilian employees and military personnel affiliated with the group.
Writer:Salima Aryaei
