At least two TV channels run by the Taliban in a northern Afghan province have stopped showing images of living beings during their broadcasts. The government has implemented a law banning the media from using pictures and videos of things and souls, which means people and animals.
These rules are part of legislation recently announced by Afghanistan's Taliban government formalising their strict interpretations of Islamic law imposed since they came to power in 2021, news agency AFP reported.
The private Mah-e-Naw channel showed only its logo along with an audio broadcast on Tuesday evening, the agency reported.
Officials of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice said all news media in Takhar have been banned from taking images of and broadcasting living things.
"PVPV ordered all the Takhar regional (television) media that after the meeting they can do radio reports but cannot use visuals," a reporter told AFP.
"After that journalists with national TV and other regional media will all be forced to obey, and who will hear their voices?" he said.
Saiful Islam Khyber, a ministry spokesperson, said the implementation of the order would be achieved by persuading people that images of living things were against Islamic law. He said it was being enforced in several provinces.
Television and pictures of living things were banned across the country under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001.