Taliban ban fiber optic internet in Balkh and nine provinces, CPJ demands restoration

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 3 months ago |  CPJ News Alert

NEW YORK—Taliban authorities must immediately restore fiber optic internet in Balkh and up to nine other provinces to ensure that Afghan citizens have access to Wi-Fi internet and journalists can continue to provide the public with reliable news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

“Banning broadband internet is an unprecedented escalation of censorship that will undermine journalists’ work and the public’s right to information,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “The Taliban should end their cycle of repression and unconditionally restore internet access, which is an essential tool for news gathering.”

On September 16, Haji Zaid, a spokesperson for the Balkh provincial government, announced on social platform X that the ban was a direct order from Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada to prevent “immorality.”

He did not elaborate on why Balkh, a province in the country’s north, was chosen, or how long restrictions would remain in place. The ban affects homes, businesses, and government offices. Mobile internet remains functional.

The broadband blackout has since been expanded to as many as nine other provinces, including Kandahar, Nimroz, Uruzgan, and Helmand, according to news reports.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have annihilated Afghanistan’s independent media sector and supplanted it with their own propaganda empire. Taliban authorities have arrested several journalists reporting for exiled media and forced hundreds to flee to neighboring countries.

Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat did not immediately respond to CPJ’s text message requesting comment.

Photo caption: An Afghan man uses the internet at the Lincoln U.S. support library in Herat, December 13, 2009. The Taliban have cut fiber optic internet in up to 10 provinces to prevent 'immorality.' (Photo: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl)