The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) says its radio broadcasts in Afghanistan have been interrupted after the government interfered with its ability to broadcast there.
In a statement released on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the BBC confirmed its FM radio signals were suspended in the country, without providing further explanation.
A spokesperson for the Taliban, the ruling party in Afghanistan, accused the BBC of violating unspecified laws concerning media operations there, but didn’t specify what the news outlet did to warrant suspension.
For three years, the BBC has been the only Western news outlet allowed to newsgather and report from Afghanistan after two other outlets, the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), were suspended in 2022. Voice of America and RFE/RL are funded through appropriations measures approved by the U.S. Congress.
“The Afghan authorities have suspended the transmission of the BBC from FM radio sites across Afghanistan,” a BBC spokesperson said in a note to The Desk on Tuesday. “We are continuing to report fairly and independently in Pashto, Dari and English to our audiences in Afghanistan, on shortwave and medium wave radio, online and via satellite. Millions of people across Afghanistan rely on the BBC for accurate news and information and we are working with the authorities to address the situation.”
The spokesperson said its programming reaches 5.4 million people in Afghanistan, “more than 20 percent of the adult population” there. Those figures could not be independently verified.
The Afghan Ministroy of Information and Culture regulates all media operations in the country. Since the Taliban took over operations of the government, it has required strict compliance with Islamic Emirates policies, religious principles and privacy rules.
Earlier this year, the BBC published a 2,500-word profile that detailed certain struggles of the Afghan population. It relied on figures from the United Nations to illustrate the scene of hunger there, where nearly 5 million residents — or one-tenth of the Afghan population — struggles to get the necessary amount to eat every day.
In some cases, Afghan families have resorted to selling their children in order to raise money for food and medical necessities, the BBC said. The news outlet highlighted the plight of one family whose daughter was sold to a relative for around $3,200 so she could have life-saving surgery.
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