Just days after shutting down Noor TV, the Taliban targeted Tamadon TV and banned its activities. The suppression of media, regardless of its orientation, is against the values of freedom of expression, freedom of information, and civil liberties. Shutting down any media outlet, whether small or large, visual or auditory, local or national, constitutes a dangerous act that threatens these freedoms and pushes society towards greater despotism, repression, and organized suppression. Since coming to power, the Taliban have systematically restricted the operations of journalistic institutions and increasingly limited the space for free expression. They have consistently pressured the channels of free speech, aiming to completely silence and eliminate this phenomenon.
The closure of these TV channels has broader implications, offering lessons from past mistakes that can be valuable for the future, especially in a post-Taliban era, to avoid repeating crippling errors. During the period of the republic, a semblance of democracy had formed, reducing media repression and allowing journalistic activities to flourish. It was expected that all media outlets and journalistic institutions would safeguard these values, honoring their existence and striving to institutionalize them in society. Unfortunately, some media outlets, due to ideological inclinations or adherence to the policies of anti-democratic financial backers, undermined democracy by actively working against it, seemingly intent on its failure.
The contradiction between fundamentalist and ideological groups is longstanding and evident in their history. From the Tudeh Party of Iran aligning with the Velayat-e Motlaqaye Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) to eliminate liberal rivals to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt collaborating with the Free Officers Movement to eradicate secular parties, these movements fail to realize that the erosion of freedom and civil rights ultimately backfires. Once freedoms are denied and international conventions protecting basic human rights are ignored, this oppression will eventually engulf them as well, rendering them defenseless against authoritarian regimes. When freedom is denied to one part of society, there is no guarantee it will continue for another. Systems of tyranny and repression are always destructive and deadly. Once these systems are established and gain strength, they devour even the closest allies of the oppressive regime, ultimately bringing an end to their existence as well.
It is paradoxically and deadly for the media, as a key instrument of free expression and a pillar of democracy, to become an enemy of the very values it should uphold, aiming to dismantle democracy. Such an approach is ungrateful and unethical, as it exploits freedom of speech to undermine it and uses democracy to destroy it. It is also irrational because it leads to the self-destruction of these institutions—digging their graves. This lesson must be learned from the record of some media outlets aligned with fundamentalism and religious extremism to prevent its repetition in the future.
Some of these media outlets may try to distance themselves from the current rulers, claiming not to be part of the Taliban’s propaganda machinery. However, during the republic era, it was clear that certain media outlets operated within the Taliban’s ideological framework, with some analysts recognizing them as agents of soft Talibanism. These media outlets saw poisoning public perception of the existing situation as part of their mission, aiming to erode belief in democracy, free expression, human rights, and similar values. They labeled these values as Western imports, continuously scaring people with the threat that their religious and national identity was at risk, claiming Afghanistan was on a path to Westernization. Meanwhile, fundamentalist voices were louder than others, with significant influence in parliament, government offices, educational institutions, and even the media, capable of oppressing dissenters.
The fall of the republic did not only occur on the battlefield; it began years earlier when anti-democratic media and propaganda outlets, in an unspoken alliance with the Taliban, prevented the establishment of new values in society. If the role of anti-democracy propaganda in strengthening the Taliban and promoting Taliban ideology is examined, it becomes evident that these media outlets, to varying degrees, waged a war where the Taliban and ISIS handled the military aspect, and the propaganda, educational, and information apparatuses handled the ideological aspect.
The lesson that all parties can learn from Afghanistan’s tragedy is that values such as freedom of expression, democracy, and human rights are irreplaceable. These values are the most humane because they allow even opponents to speak and express their views. Only by upholding these values can opportunities be provided for all groups and perspectives, leading to peaceful coexistence in society. True democracy creates a space for acceptance of diversity and allows a land to belong to all its inhabitants. Totalitarian regimes and exclusivist ideologies, which divide citizens into “us” and “them”, narrow the circle of “us” so much that they eventually exclude even their closest allies, and if necessary, they eliminate them. The difference between fundamentalism and democracy can be seen in the attributed quote to Voltaire, the famous French philosopher: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Fundamentalists, however, will give their lives to ensure their opponents cannot speak. If necessary, they will commit suicide to silence dissenting voices.
You can read the Persian version of this editorial note here:
بستن تلویزیونها از سوی طالبان؛ مرزهای تنگ خودی و بیگانه | روزنامه ۸صبح