BBC TV programming has been taken off air in Afghanistan, after the Taliban ordered local channels not to broadcast content from international partners.

Calling it a "worrying development", the BBC said it would affect more than six million viewers of Persian, Pashto and Uzbek language service programmes.

The BBC Persian TV channel can still be accessed - but only by the 20% of Afghans who have satellite TV.

Radio and online services are unaffected.

Other international broadcasters whose programming was taken off air by the ruling include Voice of America, German company Deutsche Welle and China Global Television Network.

BBC World Service head of languages Tarik Kafala said it was crucial Afghans were not denied access to impartial journalism at a time of "uncertainty and turbulence".

"We call on the Taliban to reverse their decision and allow our TV partners to return the BBC's news programmes to their airwaves immediately," he added.

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Before the ruling, the BBC had broadcast every day for half an hour in Pashto, via Afghan partner stations.

Similar arrangements allowed for 15 minutes of programming in Uzbek, five days a week, and for 60 minutes a day in Persian, also five days a week, backed by two weekly current affairs programmes.

Journalists beaten

Reporting from the Afghan capital, Kabul, BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani said the Taliban had insisted the media could report critically, "as long as they bear 'Islamic values' and 'national unity' in mind".

However, reporters have at times been detained or beaten as a result of their coverage and many Afghan journalists fled the country after the group took power last year.

Our correspondent said the latest move appeared to be part of an intensifying authoritarian trend. It came days after the Taliban reversed a decision to allow girls' secondary schools to re-open.

On Sunday, the group decreed that men and women would be allocated separate days of the week to visit parks around Kabul.

The Taliban regained control of the country last August, 20 years after being ousted, as the remaining Western troops and diplomats left.

Rubbiish:
If only Abraham had waited on God & not allowed himself to be misled by Sarah, we wouldn't be reading this.

calcal:
Good for Afghanistan, the propaganda machine should be stopped.

The same people that are banning Russian culture now complaining

harmony75:
This people don't respect human rights with their evil religion Islam it must not be exposed to the world.

IPIGSRDOTARDS:
So the British and other Europeans can ban the Russian channel but Afghanistan can't ban whatever they don't want?
Ok, we don hear. Hypocrisy all over the world.

Our blodas in AfghanEastern have learned very well from these Afgan terrorists, they both want everyone to stay home.

sapientia:


Get a Visa to Afgan to enjoy yourself

Free from western propaganda

NwaNimo1:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60893054

Maxymilliano:
I hope the people will rise up someday and say no to the Taliban's

IPIGSRDOTARDS:
So the British and other Europeans can ban the Russian channel but Afghanistan can't ban whatever they don't want?
Ok, we don hear. Hypocrisy all over the world.

Our blodas in AfghanEastern have learned very well from these Afgan terrorists, they both want everyone to stay home.

sapientia:


Get a Visa to Afgan to enjoy yourself

Free from western propaganda

BigBashiru:


If you have read my comments on this forum you would know that I'm calling for bbc to be banned in africa. They are responsible for colonial brainwashing of Africans. BBC House was set up around 1960 when the British were forced through soviet pressure to recognize Nigerias independence.... they have set up bbc hausa yoruba and pidgin not because they love you but because they want to control you.

Bbc is currently banned in Rwanda, was/is banned in Zimbabwe and France rfi and co is banned in mali....

Africans take charge of your destiny and don't let the uncivilized western European savages control you thru their media

IPIGSRDOTARDS:
So the British and other Europeans can ban the Russian channel but Afghanistan can't ban whatever they don't want?
Ok, we don hear. Hypocrisy all over the world.

Our blodas in AfghanEastern have learned very well from these Afgan terrorists, they both want everyone to stay home.