ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan's Taliban authorities detained at least three journalists in a single week, including two reporters from the country's largest broadcaster, in what global rights groups call the systematic destruction of independent media.
TOLOnews confirmed Sunday that reporters Mansoor Niazi and Imran Danish have been held since Thursday without explanation. Sources told Amu TV, an Afghan media outlet, that Niazi was seized in western Kabul. His whereabouts remain unknown.
A third journalist, Ahmad Jawed Niazi, the director of Paigard News Agency, was also arrested at his Kabul office this week, according to the Afghanistan Media Support Organization, an exiled press advocacy group. Relatives of all three say they have received no information about their conditions or legal status.
The detentions are not isolated. At least seven journalists are currently held in Taliban custody, according to media rights organizations. Between August 2021 and September 2024, the United Nations documented 256 arbitrary arrests of media workers and 130 verified cases of torture, used, the UN said, to suppress reporting and extract confessions.
The Afghan Taliban, which retook power in August 2021 after two decades of a Western-backed government, has been accused by several rights group, including the Human Rights Watch (HRW), of governing media through a tightening web of rulings and intelligence-led enforcement.
A 2024 law bans broadcasting images of humans and animals, forcing some TV stations to air audio only. Political programs must be pre-recorded and submitted for government approval before broadcast. Journalists who violate vague "religious values" guidelines risk detention by the Taliban's intelligence agency, which operates without judicial oversight, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The toll on the profession has been severe. More than half of Afghanistan's media outlets (roughly 231 stations) have permanently closed since the Taliban takeover, according to RSF. Approximately 60% of the country's journalists have either fled or left the field entirely.
Around 80% of female media workers have been forced out altogether, barred in many provinces from interviewing men, attending press conferences, or even having their voices broadcast on radio.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Afghanistan 175th out of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index. UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett said in May 2026 that "fear and self-censorship have paralyzed the flow of information" across the country.
