The Kabul Tribune (KT) — The Taliban have dismantled Afghanistan’s independent media since seizing power in August 2021, using surveillance, censorship, and violence to silence journalists, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
The rights group said Afghan journalists face arbitrary
detention, torture, and severe restrictions that have gutted press freedom.
Many reporters have fled into exile, only to face new dangers abroad, including
the risk of forced return to Afghanistan.
“Taliban officials increasingly compel Afghan journalists to
produce ‘safe,’ pre-approved stories, and they punish those who step out of
line with arbitrary detention and torture,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan
researcher at Human Rights Watch. “While all Afghan journalists have been
affected and many have fled the country, women journalists have been among the
hardest hit.”
Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with 31 Afghan
journalists — 18 still in Afghanistan and 13 in exile — as well as with refugee
organizations. Reporters described harassment, arrests, and torture by Taliban
intelligence agents and the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention
of Vice.
The Taliban have enforced 11 media rules that prohibit
reporting deemed “contrary to Islam” or “insulting to national figures.” The
vague guidelines have allowed authorities to censor and punish reporters
arbitrarily. Journalists said Taliban intelligence officials routinely review
reports before publication and threaten those who publish stories seen as
damaging to the regime.
“The Taliban tell us, ‘Make sure you don’t harm us with your
reports,’” one Kabul-based journalist said. “If you do, you’ll be in
trouble.”
Severe Restrictions on Women Journalists
Women working in media face some of the harshest
restrictions. In several provinces, no women are employed in journalism at all,
while in others they must work from home or travel only with a male guardian.
Some are barred from covering official events, and officials from the Virtue
and Vice Ministry regularly inspect offices to enforce hijab and gender
segregation rules.
The Taliban have also ordered a ban on broadcasting women’s
voices in some provinces. “Women’s voices are not banned in Badghis yet, but
PVPV is warning every day,” a woman journalist in western Afghanistan told
Human Rights Watch.
Torture and Arbitrary Detention
Human Rights Watch documented multiple cases of torture and
abuse in detention. One journalist said he was accused of spying and beaten
nightly. “They put plastic on my head so I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “I was
tortured for more than an hour every night.”
Reporters accused of contacting media in exile face
especially severe punishment. Some were forced to sign pledges to stop working
as journalists after release. Journalists from ethnic minorities, particularly
Hazaras, described even harsher treatment, including racial slurs and threats
of death.
Exiled Journalists at Risk
More than 1,000 Afghan journalists have fled the country
since 2021. Many live precariously in Türkiye, Pakistan, and Europe without
legal status or protection. Human Rights Watch said Afghans in Türkiye face
detention and deportation, while Pakistan has refused to renew visas for Afghan
refugees. In the United States, the expiration of Temporary Protected Status in
mid-2025 has left Afghan journalists vulnerable to detention and
deportation.
“Afghanistan is unsafe for return, and deporting journalists
back there would put their lives at grave risk,” Abbasi said.
Before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had hundreds of
independent media outlets employing thousands of journalists. Today, most have
closed. Reporters Without Borders estimates that 40 to 60 percent of Afghan
media outlets have stopped operating, and the number of female journalists has
dropped by more than half.
“The Taliban’s oppression of the media has intensified as
the need for independent journalism in Afghanistan becomes even greater,”
Abbasi said. “Governments that pledged to protect Afghans should extend that
support to journalists at risk and end all deportations to Afghanistan.”
