Q&A: Inside the newsroom taking on the Taliban from 7000 miles away

An illustration shows a woman news reporter gesturing. Thomson Reuters Foundation

How dangerous is it to be a journalist in Afghanistan? How do women reporters get around the Taliban's restrictions? And how will harsh new "morality" laws impact the future of the media?

These are some of the questions we put to Lotfullah Najafizada, CEO of Amu TV, an international media outlet for Afghanistan that he helped set up after the Taliban seized power in 2021.

The U.S.-based satellite TV channel works with a vast secret network of journalists inside the country to gather news which is packaged into stories overseas and beamed back to Afghans.

Najafizada used to lead Afghanistan's largest news operation until 2021 when he fled into exile.

The increasingly draconian restrictions imposed by the Taliban on the media - and women journalists in particular - have shocked the world.

But Najafizada says there is still a huge public appetite inside the country for unbiased news and information.

"We're talking about a generation that has grown up with press freedom in their DNA," he says.

More than 300 journalists have faced arrest, torture or intimidation since the Taliban takeover, according to U.N. experts. 

Female journalists are excluded from press conferences, banned from interviewing men and forced to cover their faces.

Most of Amu TV's reporters work anonymously, communicating with their colleagues overseas via secure channels.

But Najafizada warns conditions are becoming more dangerous – and more difficult.

The Taliban's recently announced "morality" law bans women from speaking in public and prohibits the publishing of human images. While not yet fully enforced, it could potentially kill off television.

The interview with Najafizada was filmed at Trust Conference 2024, the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual flagship forum, where he joined a panel alongside international lawyer Natalia Belikova and journalist Laura Aguirre to discuss support for journalists in exile.

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