The Taliban has banned the Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from airing its news programs in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, VOA condemned the Taliban’s actions in a statement. 

“We ask the Taliban to reconsider this troubling and unfortunate decision,” Acting VOA Director Yolanda Lόpez said in a statement. “The content restrictions that the Taliban are attempting to impose are antithetical to freedom of expression that the people of Afghanistan deserve.”

The BBC World Service also responded to the ban on their services, the head of languages has urged the group to remove the ban.

“The BBC’s TV news bulletins in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek have been taken off air in Afghanistan, after the Taliban ordered our TV partners to remove international broadcasters from their airwaves,” Tarik Kafala confirmed in a statement on Sunday.

Mr Kafala noted that the television station provides its services to “more than six million Afghans…and it is crucial they are not denied access to it in the future.”

The ban on VOA and BBC programs comes after the Taliban turned away Afghan girls from its schools last week. 

The country’s clampdown follows a survey by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), showing that at least 40 per cent of Afghan media outlets have shut down operations since the Taliban takeover of the country.

The survey revealed that over 6,400 journalists and media employees have lost their jobs since the Taliban’s hostile takeover of Afghanistan.