Atal Khan Stanekzai, head of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV network said the media outlet was closed by members of the IEA Police District (PD) 4 area of Jalalabad on Monday, August 1, 2023
August 1, 2023
Jalalabad, Nangarhar province- The Afghanistan Journalists Center(AFJC), strongly condemns the shutdown of the privately owned Radio and TV network Hamisha Bahar in the eastern province of Nangarhar a day after the media outlet holds a mixed-gender training and calls on the authorities to allow the outlet to resume broadcasting.
Atal Khan Stanekzai, head of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV network said the media outlet was closed by members of the IEA Police District (PD) 4 area of Jalalabad on Monday around 6 pm.
Local authorities in Nangarhar province have not commented on this matter so far, but a source in the provincial capital Jalalabad who asked to remain anonymous due to security concerns said that the media outlet was shut down for holding a mixed training attended by men and men a day earlier at the outlet’s office.
On August 1, a group of 10 to 15 members of the Taliban provincial police forcibly entered the office of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV network, accused the outlet of breaking the de facto authorities’ ban on women's higher education, and ordered the closing of the training course.
Radio Hamisha Bahar was established in 2011 and its TV channel in 2018 in Jalalabad capital of Nangarhar province. It has 35 staff, nine of them female.
AFJC said: “The space for the independent media continues to shrink significantly in Afghanistan, and shutting down of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV network in Jalalabad is another important step in that process.”
AFJC:” We call on the de facto authorities to direct the local authorities in Nangarhar province to comply with the dictates of the rule of law by immediately withdrawing the order for the shutting down of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV network, and henceforth desist from any such act.”