The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Five years after the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan has become one of the world’s most difficult places for journalists to work, with widespread censorship, arbitrary detention, violence and restrictions on women journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
The Taliban took control of Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, and quickly moved to restrict independent media. Female journalists were barred from working at the public broadcaster, while reporters covering protests were beaten and detained, according to the CPJ.
By 2022, the group had increasingly used arbitrary detention and imprisonment to silence journalists and censor news organizations. Khalid Qaderi, a reporter and producer for Radio Nawruz in Herat, was the first journalist CPJ documented as being convicted and sentenced for his work after the Taliban takeover.
“Since taking over Afghanistan five years ago, the Taliban have made Afghanistan one of the world’s hardest places for journalists to report,” said Waliullah Rahmani, CPJ’s Afghanistan-Pakistan representative.
Rahmani said journalists are surveilled, detained, beaten, censored or forced into exile, while women journalists face additional discrimination. Internet and mobile network restrictions have further limited access to independent information, he said.
Women working in the media have faced particularly severe restrictions. Taliban authorities have banned women’s voices from radio and television in some provinces, prevented women journalists from attending press conferences and required female television presenters to cover their faces.
In February 2025, Taliban intelligence agents raided Radio Begum, a women-led broadcaster, and suspended its operations.
The restrictions have also expanded to the content journalists are allowed to report. In 2024, Taliban authorities banned live political broadcasts, prohibited criticism of the group and restricted interviews to a list of approved analysts, according to CPJ.
Authorities also jammed broadcasts from London-based Afghanistan International, banned television operations and public filming in Takhar province and suspended the broadcast licenses of 14 media outlets in Nangarhar. In February 2025, the Taliban also prohibited domestic media outlets from broadcasting political and economic programs.
CPJ said the suppression of independent journalism has been accompanied by the growth of a Taliban-controlled information network. By 2025, the group operated about 15 major television and radio stations, newspapers and digital platforms, according to the organization.
Journalists in several provinces told CPJ that restrictions had become so extensive that, apart from subjects such as health and education, traffic accidents were among the few stories they could safely report.
Internet shutdowns have further restricted access to information. In September 2025, the Taliban blocked fiber-optic internet in several provinces and later imposed a nationwide internet blackout that lasted about 48 hours, CPJ said.
The crackdown has continued in 2026. In May, Taliban intelligence agents detained two TOLOnews reporters before raiding the television station’s offices, confiscating employees’ phones, interrogating staff and placing workers under surveillance, according to CPJ.
In June, armed members of the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice forced Tamadon TV off the air and sealed its Kabul offices. The broadcaster was among the last remaining television stations carrying Shia programming. Its managing editor, Mohammad Rahmati, and media worker Mohammad Reza Ehsani were later detained after being summoned to the Justice Ministry, CPJ said.
Several months earlier, Taliban intelligence agents took control of Rah-e-Farda TV, which later resumed broadcasting under a new owner licensed by the Taliban.
The decline of independent media has also driven hundreds of Afghan journalists into exile, particularly in neighboring countries, according to CPJ. Many remain vulnerable to detention, deportation and forced return to Afghanistan.
CPJ has urged governments not to return journalists who fled Taliban persecution, warning that they could face retaliation, arbitrary detention and other risks if sent back.
The organization called on the Taliban to end its repression of journalists, lift restrictions on independent media and restore an environment in which Afghan journalists — particularly women — can work safely and independently.
