Can Tolo, Afghanistan’s Leading Broadcaster, Survive the Taliban?

Mr. Mohseni said a wholesale clampdown on the news media would also prove difficult in the era of TikTok and Twitter. About 60 percent of Afghans are 25 or younger, he noted, and they had come of age with mixed classrooms of male and female students; uncovered women; and Snapchat.

“Today’s Taliban are savvy. They check or ban smartphones and WhatsApp in remote villages. They can monitor phones,” he said. “But the country has changed, the population is young, and the Taliban will not suddenly be able to deprogram people and tell them the world is flat when they know that it is not.”

Massoud Sanjer, director of content for Tolo’s entertainment arm, recalled that during the last Taliban rule, he watched foreign films like “Braveheart” by installing a banned satellite dish on his roof, hidden behind a concrete wall.

“Afghans know how to adjust to circumstances,” he said.

Mr. Mohseni said that after entering Kabul, the Taliban visited Tolo’s compound, confiscated all the state-issued weapons and offered their protection. He said Tolo politely declined.

Though many female journalists have fled, he added, some have continued to report on the ground despite his pleas for them to stay at home.

Though he said Tolo’s news content wasn’t being censored, a review of recent coverage on Tolo’s popular “6 P.M. News” showed some signs of self-censorship. Stories about what a future Taliban government may look like are conspicuously absent or underplayed, as are profiles of Taliban leaders.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/world/asia/afghanistan-tolo-taliban.html