Tolo news director Lotfullah Najafizada speaks with his colleagues in the news channel's newsroom, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Oct. 18, 2015. Already forced to operate in one of the world's most hostile environments for journalists, Afghan television stations are now being openly targeted by Islamist insurgents in a widening insurgency that threatens cities across the country. Amid reports of summary executions, kidnappings and other abuses, the Taliban also issued a grim warning to two Afghan television stations, Tolo News and 1 TV, designating them as "military objectives.”AHMAD MASOOD/Reuters
The atmosphere around Tolo TV, one of Afghanistan's premier broadcasters, is noticeably tense these days. Uniformed soldiers control the entrance. In the airlock between two massive steel gates, military vehicles keep a watchful eye.
The heightened security comes as a result of a direct Taliban threat against Tolo and its fellow station, 1TV, that has rocked Afghanistan's media world.
A statement called the two stations "Satanic channels" that are "disrespectful" toward the Taliban, and said Taliban fighters had been ordered to take "decisive" action against them as military targets.
"Henceforth no employee, anchor, office, news team and reporter of these TV channels holds any immunity," read the statement from the self-described Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
They were chilling words from a group that had, until recently, maintained a largely hands-off policy for the press.
"It has had quite a psychological effect on our staff," said Abdullah Khenjani, news and current affairs director of 1TV.
Both stations are doing their best to carry on as usual, but it's not easy.
"Pundits and analysts are now making all kinds of excuses not to work with us," Mr. Khenjani said wryly. "They are sick, or they have to travel, or they are busy with something else."
The reason for the Taliban's ire were reports the two stations broadcast during the siege of Kunduz, which lasted from late September until mid-October. Kunduz is a major urban centre in northern Afghanistan, and its fall to the insurgents, however temporary, represented a significant public-relations victory for the anti-government forces.
Both Tolo and 1TV had broadcast allegations that the Taliban had gone on rampages of rape and torture. They also reported the Taliban denials, and statements from city officials that nothing of the sort had occurred.
But this display of journalistic balance was lost on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The development of a lively media sector has been one of the major successes of the past decade in Afghanistan. Where once the only access to what passed for "information" came through the Taliban's Voice of Sharia radio, Afghans now have a wealth of choice.
The international community has invested heavily in Afghanistan's media. Since 2002, the U.S. aid agency USAID has poured hundreds of millions into the sector; it was the major donor for Pajhwok Afghan News, Afghanistan's largest independent news agency. It helped to launch Tolo with a generous grant in 2004.
According to the U.S. Institute of Peace, Afghanistan now has 174 radio stations, 68 private television stations, 22 state-owned provincial TV channels and the national radio and television network – all adding up to a media "juggernaut."
The Taliban's growing reach is threatening these gains, and Afghan officials say they are taking the new threats to silence local journalists seriously.
"The insurgents have shown absolutely no mercy to the media," said Javid Faisal, deputy spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's Chief Executive Officer. (A contested election last year resulted in the creation of the CEO post, which loosely amounts to a co-president.)
Mr. Faisal was speaking at the third annual Afghanistan Social Media Summit, which brought together government, civil society representatives and techno-geeks to celebrate the country's growing connection to the world.
The Taliban spectre cast a distinct shadow over the proceedings, however. The venue had to be kept secret until the last minute.
"It is the government's responsibility to protect its citizens, and the government has taken measures," Mr. Faisal added. "Freedom of speech is one of our greatest achievements."
But the government's assurances are less than comforting, according to Mr. Khenjani. "When we go to the government for support, they say, 'We're not all that happy with you, either,'" he said.
Certainly the government has shown itself to be a bit thin-skinned when it comes to criticism by the media. One case that got a lot of attention locally was the temporary blocking of a satirical website, Kabul Taxi, after it posted a humorous, if pointed, cartoon criticizing a top official. Two reporters were hauled in by the security services and interrogated for hours before being released.