ISLAMABAD (AP) — Taliban run-media have stopped showing images of living beings in some Afghan provinces to comply with morality laws, an official confirmed Tuesday.
In August, the country’s Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws regulating aspects of everyday life like public transportation, shaving, the media and celebrations reflecting authorities' interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
Article 17 bans the publication of images of living beings, sparking concerns about the consequences for Afghan media and press freedom.
A spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry, Saif ul Islam Khyber, said government media in the provinces of Takhar, Maidan Wardak and Kandahar have been advised not to air or show images of anything with a soul — meaning people and animals.
Khyber told The Associated Press a day earlier that the ministry was responsible for implementing the morality laws.
He did not clarify if the rules affected all media, including foreign outlets, or only Afghan channels and websites.
Nor did he say how the laws would be enforced or if there was a deadline for compliance.
Hujjatullah Mujadidi, the director of the Afghan Independent Journalists Union, said that Vice and Virtue Ministry officials initially told state media to stop running pictures and videos of living beings. This request was later extended to all media in those provinces.
“Last night, independent local media (in some provinces) also stopped running these videos and images and are instead broadcasting nature videos,” Mujadidi said.
No other Muslim-majority country imposes similar restrictions, including Iran and Saudi Arabia. During their previous rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban banned most television, radio and newspapers altogether.
FILE - Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at his first news conference, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)
FILE - TV anchor Nesar Nabil wears a face mask to protest the Taliban's new order that female presenters cover their faces, as he reads the news on TOLOnews, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
FILE - TV anchor Nesar Nabil is seen on studio monitors wearing a face mask to protest the Taliban's new order that female presenters cover their faces, as he reads the news on TOLOnews, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania's prime minister on Tuesday said Tirana had turned down many requests from other European Union countries to take in thousands of asylum-seekers but made an exception for Italy.
A n Italian navy ship was expected to dock at the Albanian port of Shengjin with the first group of 16 migrants who were intercepted in international waters and whose asylum applications will be processed in two centers in Albania instead of in Italy, under a five-year agreement between the two countries.
Rama, speaking in Luxembourg at an EU conference, repeated that no other country will be able to operate asylum centers in Albania.
He said Albania felt an expression of gratitude for the tens of thousands of Albanians that were welcomed by Italy when communism fell in 1991, or support extended by Rome during the economic turmoil in 1997 and in the aftermath of the 2019 earthquake.
The Italian naval ship Libra left the port of Lampedusa in southern Italy on Monday with 16 men — 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt — who were rescued at sea after departing from Libya, according to the Italian government.
The number of migrants reaching Italy along the central Mediterranean route from North Africa has fallen by 61% in 2024 from 2023. According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of Oct. 11, 52,425 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, compared to 138,947 in the same period last year.
Under a five-year deal signed last November by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Rama, up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month will be sheltered in Albania. They will be screened initially on board the ships that rescue them before being sent to Albania for further screening.
The first center in Shengjin, 66 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital, Tirana, will be used for screening newcomers and the other facility, about 22 kilometers (14 miles) to the east near the former military airport in Gjader, will accommodate migrants during the processing of their asylum requests.
Italy has agreed to welcome those who are granted asylum. Those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.
The controversial agreement to outsource the housing of asylum-seekers to a non-EU member country has been hailed by some countries that, like Italy, are suffering a heavy burden of refugees.
The agreement was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of “out-of-box thinking” in tackling the issue of migration into the EU, but has been slammed by human rights groups as setting a dangerous precedent.
Meloni and her right-wing allies have long demanded that European countries share more of the migration burden. She has held up the Albania agreement as an innovative solution to a problem that has vexed the EU for years.
Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, arrives to the 'Berlin Process' summit about integration with and within the western Balkans in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
