Afghan Taliban vow to implement media ban on images of living things

Kabul — Afghanistan's Taliban morality ministry pledged Monday to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule will be gradually enforced.

"The law applies to all Afghanistan... and it will be implemented gradually" by persuading people images of living things are against Islamic law, spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice Saiful Islam Khyber told AFP.

The Taliban government judiciary recently announced legislation formalising their strict interpretations of Islamic law imposed by the authorities since they swept to power in 2021.

The law detailed several rules for news media, including banning the publication of images of all living things and ordering outlets not to mock or humiliate Islam, or contradict Islamic law.

Aspects of the new law have not yet been strictly enforced, however, and Taliban officials continue to regularly post photos of people on social media.

Television and pictures of living things were banned across the country under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, but a similar edict has so far not been broadly imposed since their return to power.