Date: 18/10/1403

The Taliban's Office for the Promotion of Virtue in Nuristan province has officially banned the taking of live photos and publishing them in the province, the Afghanistan Journalists' Center said on Tuesday. According to the center, Nuristan is the sixth province to announce and implement this ban. So far, the ban on the publication of live images has been officially announced in five provinces, including Kandahar, Takhar, Badghis, Helmand and Nangarhar. The Afghanistan Journalists Centre (AJC) has expressed serious concern over the expansion of the restriction and warned of its "negative consequences on the media's work process and people's access to information.
The center said that the Nuristan Department for the Promotion of Virtue announced in a statement on Monday, January 7, that the order was issued by Din Mohammad Mostaghni, the head of the Nuristan Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, in the presence of the governor and other Taliban officials. Mostaghni said that this order was issued based on Article 17 of the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and should be seriously observed. According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center newsletter in Nuristan province, in addition to the provincial representation of National Radio and Television and the state-run Bakhtar News Agency, there are three private radio stations: Elena, Sulaya Sahar, and Paron Ghag. Local sources told the center, "National TV in Nuristan does not have a local program, and before the ban on the publication of live images was announced, its reports were broadcast on national television in Kabul. Also, video reports from the provincial section of Bakhtar News Agency were also sent to Kabul." According to the report of the Afghanistan Journalists Center, the office of the governor of the ruling administration in Nuristan has no longer published live pictures on the department's Facebook page and instead uses pictures of office buildings.Although the ban has been officially announced only in Kandahar, Takhar, Badghis, Helmand and Nangarhar provinces and recently Nuristan, the findings of the center show that this ban is expanding in other provinces as well and some local administrations are implementing it.

This entry documents the formal expansion of Taliban restrictions on visual media through a province-wide ban on live photography and publication in Nuristan. Issued under the Law on the Promotion of Virtue and enforced in the presence of provincial authorities, the measure reflects the administrative institutionalization of censorship rather than ad hoc interference. The ban directly constrains journalistic practice and public access to information, while evidence of parallel implementation beyond officially announced provinces indicates regulatory diffusion through local enforcement rather than transparent national decree