A Comparative Analysis of Media Restrictions under the Taliban Regimes & democratic Regime in Afghanistan

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the experience of Afghan media, focusing on the restrictions in the period of the Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 and the period that followed after the regime fell in 2001. The complete censorship of the Taliban extended to newspapers, banning anything that included music, photography, or television limited cultural freedom and information sharing under Taliban rule, and that media turned into a propaganda tool. The 2003 Afghan Constitution and the Bonn Agreement paved way for a free operational media environment and, therefore instantly boosted up independent journalism and digital media until the Taliban’s reintroduction in 2021. This recent rise of the Taliban to power has reintroduced censorship rather severely curbing the freedom of the press and threatening women journalists who suffer from not only professional danger but also legal discrimination at the workplace. By 2024 most of journalists especially women were laid off their jobs and many companies and media houses shut down. Using secondary sources of data, the article discusses those restrictions through the lens of the framing theory & relating it to Afghan society, pointing out free speech, culture and society’s regression towards authoritarianism as the outcomes. Finally, this study calls for increased international pressure towards rallying for the rights of individuals as well as media liberties in Afghanistan in order to develop a democratic sense of rights in the nation.