In early August, two Afghan journalists were shot and kidnapped in western Afghanistan by the Taliban, and in July, the Indian Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui was brutally murdered.

- Foreign journalists on site must be extremely vigilant and take security guidelines very seriously and respect the fact that it is currently life-threatening to be a journalist in Afghanistan, says Erik Halkjaer.

He sees the Taliban's takeover as a difficult blow to press freedom and fears that the situation may become as it was in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and press freedom was minimal.

Since the Taliban lost power in 2001, freedom of the press has improved and it has been strong in the Afghan constitution, although in practice the country has had major problems with violence against journalists and their security.

Expected to broadcast religious content

As the Taliban took greater control of the country, several local media companies have been affected.

Already a week ago, about fifty local media had been forced to close down and almost a hundred journalists left their jobs.

- Now we are probably talking about an even greater impoverishment.

We have no figures but have received several reports about how the Taliban stepped in on local radio stations and said "of course you can continue to broadcast but you must comply with our orders", says Erik Halkjaer.

Orders that journalists are expected to broadcast religious content and follow sharia law.

- This means that female journalists in principle can not work at all.

Erik Halkjaer says that the Taliban recently joined the editorial staff of the TV channel Tolonew and that they then took the guards' weapons, but also urged the journalists to continue doing their job.

- So it is a bit ambiguous what applies, says Erik Halkjaer who sees signs that the Taliban want a dialogue with the outside world.

- But if they shut down all media then I think the outside world will act and break the dialogue, so here is a game piece for the outside world to use to pressure the Taliban to stand up for press freedom, he says.