Since the radical Islamic Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in mid-August, 43 percent of the country's media has been suspended.
This emerges from a study published on Monday by the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders and the Organization of Independent Journalists in Afghanistan (Ajia).
According to this, 60 percent of Afghan journalists became unemployed.
Of 543 media that were registered in mid-August, only 312 remained at the end of November, said Reporters Without Borders.
Within three months, 43 percent of the media had disappeared.
Female journalists and media workers in particular have lost their jobs, 84 percent of whom are unemployed.
"Four months ago there were at least ten private media outlets in most Afghan provinces," the organization said.
In the meantime “some regions are practically without local media”.
In the capital region of Kabul, where media concentration was highest before the Taliban came to power, 51 percent of media companies closed.
Of 148 press organs before mid-August, 72 were still working at the end of November.
Of the 10,790 editorial staff in the first half of August, only 4,360 were on duty at the time of the study, of which 3950 were men and 410 women.
In 15 out of 34 provinces there are no longer any journalists working at all.
In some regions, the local Taliban officials no longer allow journalists.
Free reporting is no longer possible. According to Reporters Without Borders, the work is subject to the “eleven rules of journalism”, suggestions for topics must first be submitted to the responsible ministry and the contributions must be approved before publication.