17-08-2021, 10:34 AM
RhysJR post_id=34556 time= user_id=1340 Wrote:Have to echo how informative Yalda Hakim et al on BBC News have been. The phone interview with the Taliban spokesperson yesterday was quite extraordinary, I think Yalda was on air without a break from one interview to the next for almost 90 minutes including that 30 minute interview.
Here's some details on what is happening with Afghan TV:
There is (at time of writing) a live feed of the state broadcaster RTA at http://rta.live - for the past few days, every time I've looked in they've been broadcasting nothing but what appears to be pre-recorded Islamic religious programming, sometimes Qu'ran readings, sometimes a group of men in the studio discussing Islam. There's also a live stream on YouTube of a commercial channel called ATN News, but it mostly appears to be recorded material and ads/promos, I'm not sure if it's still broadcasting anything live.
On Sunday evening, some radio listeners outside Afghanistan heard the state radio broadcaster (on a high-powered medium wave frequency, so audible for a few hundred miles beyond the borders) switch at 7pm UK time from the previous normal programming to Taliban programming, again mostly Qu'ran recitals. RTA regional stations in areas taken over earlier have reportedly been replaced with a service called Voice of Shari'a.
Interestingly, Voice of America and Radio Azadi (aka RFE/RL) MW radio broadcasts from transmitters inside Afghanistan remained on the air with news and music, at least last night. They broadcast two services, one from a transmitter in Kabul and another from a site in the south-east of the country, near the Pakistan border. The Taliban have either chosen not to switch them off or haven't got round to it yet.