Kabul, Jan 27 (UNI) The Taliban government in Afghanistan has barred media outlets from holding press conference in Kabul, according to media reports. According to Afghanistan Journalist Center, a press conference, which was supposed to be held on January 26 in Kabul, was to be attended by 11 representatives from different media organisations. "The Afghanistan Journalist Federation and other media organisations were supposed to hold a conference. All national and international media outlets were covering it, however, unfortunately, due to the verbal order of the officials of the Islamic Emirate, the conference was cancelled," Ali Asghar Akbarzada, head of the Afghanistan National Journalists' Union was quoted as saying by TOLOnews. The Taliban cited the reason for stopping press conferences as it was "concerned" about the media's status in the country. The Taliban had instructed to not hold the conference until they get permission, the journalists' union said. "We call on the Islamic Emirate to finalise their decision in the future. They should make the decision as soon as possible and give us a permit so we can hold our conference based on it," Akbarzada said. The Taliban, however, did not made any comments over whether it stopped the conference or not but said it remains supportive of the media, based on Islamic regulations. "The Islamic Emirate is committed to cooperation with the media and freedom of speech and it supports media under the Islamic structure," said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for the Taliban. According to statistics, over 43 per cent of media activities have been halted and over 60 per cent of media employees have lost jobs since the Taliban's takeover of Kabul. UNI VP RNJ