TOLOnews was launched in August 2010 as a sister channel to TOLO TV, dedicated solely to local, national, and international news. As of August 2021, its owner is
Afghan Australian businessman
Saad Mohseni, while Lotfullah Najafizada served as director news from 2010 until 2021. For his work on the channel, Najafizada was named a Press Freedom Hero by
Reporters Without Borders in 2016. Following the
fall of Kabul on 15 August 2021 and the establishment of what the Taliban regime calls the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, TOLOnews received international attention after a
Taliban spokesman was interviewed on the channel by a female journalist. Mohseni stated he intended to continue broadcasting TOLOnews, and that he would do so from the
Middle East or
Europe if the Taliban were to shut down the channel's operations in Afghanistan. All three men were subsequently released. TOLOnews continues to employ female reporters and journalists, under conditions such as the Taliban-approved wearing of hijab, and curtains set up in their studios to separate men and women. According to Saad Mohseni, CEO of the
MOBY Group, which owns the channel, "From a news perspective, at least, it's almost the same as it was before. There's no story that we cannot cover. Perhaps with not as much fanfare as we used to and we sometimes have to be careful in the way we criticise the authorities". On the importance of continuing to employ women, Mohseni noted "I think we are the
canary in the coalmine. When people talk about women getting silenced, as long as they're on television, we know that they haven't been fully silenced". ==Presenters (current and former)==