PARIS: A Taliban spokesman has promised that journalists will not be persecuted in Afghanistan and that women will be allowed to continue working in the media, campaign group RSF said in a statement on Tuesday.

RSF, a Paris-based media freedom organisation, said the assurances were given by Zabihullah Mujahid in a conversation on Sunday as the extremist group was taking over the capital Kabul.

“We will respect freedom of the press, because media reporting will be useful to society and will be able to help correct the leaders’ errors,” Mujahid was quoted as saying. “Through this statement to RSF, we declare to the world that we recognise the importance of the role of the media.”

He added: “Journalists working for state or privately-owned media are not criminals and none of them will be prosecuted. In our view, these journalists are civilians and moreover, are talented young people who constitute our richness.”

Under the first period of Taliban rule in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, all media was banned except for the Voice of Sharia radio station “which broadcast nothing but propaganda and religious programmes,” RSF recalled in its statement.