Taliban Will Shut Down Media, Afghan Photographer Warns

Massoud Hossaini, who scooped a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 while working for Agence France-Presse and is now freelance, said Afghanistan's new rulers were already restricting female journalists in particular.

The Taliban will shut down Afghanistan's media and are fooling the West by promising to let journalists operate freely, an award-winning Afghan photographer said after fleeing Kabul over threats by the group. Massoud Hossaini, who scooped a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 while working for Agence France-Presse and is now freelance, said Afghanistan's new rulers were already restricting female journalists in particular. The 39-year-old's dire warning on the future of the media in Afghanistan comes as he recovers from a dramatic escape from Kabul on the last commercial flight the day the Taliban took power. "It is going to be really, really bad. They are trying to kill the media but they are doing it slowly," Hossaini, who is currently staying in the Netherlands, told AFP on Friday.