Amid violent attacks in Afghanistan that have killed over 20 people in two days in the run-up to presidential elections on Thursday, the government has asked the media not to report on any episodes of violence on election day, “to ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people.”

“This request is an affront to free and independent reporting, which should be a fundamental element of any election process,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “I urge the Afghan government to not take any action against those media outlets that in the public interest refuse to comply with this attempt at blatant censorship.”

Violence has intensified in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, where Taliban militants have pledged to attack polling centres and warned voters not to go to the polls.

The Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement requesting “all domestic and international news agencies [to] refrain from broadcasting any incident of violence during the election process from 6 am to 8 pm on 20 August.” According to the Ministry’s statement, Afghanistan’s National Security Council made the request “in view of the need to ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people in the upcoming presidential and provincial council elections.”

The government has not specified how it intends to enforce the ban. Representatives of broadcasters on the ground in Kabul say the authorities will find it hard to prevent the media from reporting on any election day violence.

“There are over 17 television stations in Kabul and hundreds of radio stations around the country. I do not see how the government can stop them from reporting,” the representative of a major international broadcaster preparing to cover Thursday’s elections in Afghanistan told IPI.

Asked whether the broadcaster intended to comply with the government’s request, he said it would not necessarily report on smaller attacks and would always report in a manner that didn’t create panic, but “if something happens, news is news and we ought to report it.“

Afghanistan remains a dangerous place for journalists, who are regularly attacked, wounded, abducted and killed.

Afghanistan’s media law prohibits the publication of anything that harms the “national interest” or that is an “affront to Islam” – provisions often used to suppress press freedom.

Last week, two journalists working for the Associated Press (AP) were seriously wounded in a roadside bombing in Eastern Kandahar, Afghanistan.