Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA)

Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) is Afghanistan’s state broadcasting organisation, operating national radio and television services and provincial stations. RTA traces its radio service to Kabul Radio in 1925, while television broadcasting began on 19 August 1978. Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, RTA has operated as the administration’s principal broadcasting institution and an important source of officially approved material for other Afghan media.

Media assets

Television: National Television Afghanistan

Radio: Radio Afghanistan

Ownership and governance

RTA is a state-owned institution. Under the pre-2021 Mass Media Law, oversight was formally assigned to a High Media Council containing representatives of state institutions, the media and civil society, while the law also provided for an Afghanistan National Radio Television Commission. Despite this formally pluralistic structure, effective control remained with the executive during the republic period. RTA was redesignated as an “independent directorate” in 2014, but efforts to transform it into an autonomous public-service broadcaster did not produce durable institutional independence.

The pre-2021 governance framework is no longer functioning in practice. Current official sources place RTA under the Ministry of Information and Culture, and its leadership is appointed directly by the Taliban administration. Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi was appointed to lead RTA in August 2023, replacing Mawlavi Ahmadullah Wasiq. Ahmadi had previously headed the Government Media and Information Center and had served as a Taliban spokesperson and member of the movement’s Cultural Commission. RTA continued to identify him as Director General in 2026. No functioning independent board, protected appointment procedure or external oversight mechanism was identified.

Two Taliban institutions exercise direct influence over media content. Human Rights Watch reported in October 2025 that the General Directorate of Intelligence monitors media output, while officials of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice inspect media premises and enforce restrictions associated with the Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, promulgated in August 2024. Enforcement varies between provinces and is frequently arbitrary.

Source of funding and budget

The latest detailed publicly available figures identified date from fiscal year 2016/17. RTA then received an operational budget of approximately AFN 404 million, or US$5.9 million, together with a development budget of about US$2.4 million. It generated a further approximately AFN 220 million, or US$3.2 million, from advertising and other income, although the Ministry of Finance controlled the handling of this revenue.

No detailed RTA budget or independently audited financial statements covering the period since the Taliban takeover were identified. RTA nevertheless remains a state institution operating under a government ministry and supported through the administration’s financial and material resources.

Editorial independence

RTA does not operate independently of the Taliban administration. During the republic period, management under Ismail Miakhail, a former BBC journalist, pursued modernisation and elements of public-service reform, but these initiatives did not create durable legal or institutional autonomy.

Following the August 2021 takeover, the Taliban issued eleven media rules prohibiting material considered contrary to Islam, insulting to national figures or in violation of privacy, without clearly defining the prohibited categories. Human Rights Watch reported that intelligence officials monitor output and that media organisations are frequently instructed what they may publish.

Further directives issued in September 2024 required political discussion programmes to be prerecorded rather than broadcast live, restricted commentators to approved lists, required prior authorisation for other guests and prohibited criticism or questioning of Taliban laws and policies. Media outlets were also required to submit programme and guest information in advance.

RTA also supplies officially approved material to other media. Human Rights Watch reported that, in many cases, the only video footage outlets were permitted to broadcast was material produced by RTA and distributed by authorities. Officials also circulated news, images and recordings to journalists through WhatsApp groups. This gives RTA an important role in extending state control beyond its own channels, although the available evidence does not establish an absolute nationwide monopoly on video production.

RTA’s own provincial television operations have also been curtailed by ideological restrictions. Kandahar’s RTA television service halted visual broadcasting in September 2024 following orders against depicting living beings. Similar restrictions subsequently spread across the country, including the suspension of the Farah branch in March 2025. By May 2026, the Afghanistan Journalists Center reported that the prohibition was being enforced in 25 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces and had contributed to the closure of television stations and other media organisations.

Women have been progressively excluded from Afghan broadcasting. The International Federation of Journalists reported that the number of working women journalists fell from 2,833 before the Taliban takeover to 747 in 2025, a decline of approximately 74%. It also reported that an April 2024 directive prohibited the broadcasting of women’s voices and that, by August 2025, 54 of 80 media-related directives issued by the authorities specifically concerned women. Enforcement of restrictions on women’s voices and appearances has varied between provinces but has led some stations to remove female presenters and content.

Conditions for all Afghan media deteriorated further during 2025 and 2026. Provincial fibre-optic shutdowns began in mid-September 2025, followed by a nationwide internet and mobile-service blackout lasting approximately 48 hours, from 29 September to 1 October. In June 2026, restrictions on smartphone use by government employees were reported across several provinces, further limiting access to official information.

AI and digital policy

RTA distributes content through its website, streaming services and social-media channels. No publicly available RTA editorial policy governing generative artificial intelligence, synthetic media, automated production or disclosure of AI-assisted content was identified. Nor was a national framework specifically regulating the use of AI by Afghan state media identified.

Classification rationale

RTA remains classified State-Controlled (SC). The broadcaster is state-owned and operates under the Ministry of Information and Culture. Its Director General was appointed directly by the Taliban authorities and is a former Taliban spokesperson. The pre-2021 oversight arrangements no longer function in practice, and no independent governing board, protected appointment system or external mechanism safeguards editorial decision-making.

RTA’s output is monitored by the intelligence service and subject to inspection and ideological enforcement by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Official directives determine permissible topics, formats, guests, images and voices. RTA-produced footage is also distributed to other media as approved visual material, extending the administration’s influence beyond the broadcaster’s own services.

At the same time, provincial RTA operations can themselves be suspended or reduced to radio-only output when they conflict with ideological directives. This does not indicate institutional autonomy; rather, it confirms that RTA operates as a subordinate organ of the Taliban administration.

There is no evidentiary basis for a classification other than State-Controlled, and no development during 2025 or 2026 indicates movement towards institutional or editorial independence.

July 2026