Taliban warns Afghan media outlets not to publish 'propaganda' against government in new press crackdown

Afghanistan's Taliban has warned media outlets based outside the country not to publish "propaganda" against their administration, in a new apparent crackdown on the press. 

Taliban spokesperson and director of media assessment Abdulhaq Hemad accused the outlets of a campaign against the movement's administration and said journalists could be prosecuted for negative reporting. 

"No law allows the executive of media outlets to operate from outside and promote propaganda against the regime," he said according to Afghanistan’s Khaama News. 

This comes as the Taliban have already imposed tough restrictions on the media within Afghanistan, which cannot criticise the government or publish "sensitive material", the Afghan news agency reported.

Soon after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, they launched a crackdown on media with new rules restricting women journalists or anchors from appearing on air. 

The harsh restrictions combined with the country's dire economic situation have reportedly forced hundreds of news outlets to close down. The Taliban government came as a shock to an industry that was experiencing somewhat of a renaissance under previous governments. 

The Taliban introduced dozens of extreme social restrictions over the past few months, after an initial period of hope when they appeared to be more progressive than their earlier incarnations in the 1990s.

Most notably, they imposed severe restrictions on women’s rights in the areas they fully control, preventing girls from going to school or attending institutions of higher education.