Media freedom defenders have called on Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to immediately release at least nine journalists currently in prison for their work and stop their "brutal" crackdown on national press members.
Operatives of the Taliban's spy agency—the General Directorate of Intelligence—arrested five journalists during this week’s raids on offices of independent radio and television news networks in eastern and northern parts of the country, accusing them of reporting for self-exiled Afghan news outlets.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center, an independent media freedom monitor, denounced the arrests on X—formerly known as Twitter—as a "serious violation of journalists’ rights” and demanded the Taliban "release the nine journalists currently in prison."
The Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday that the latest detentions just before the second anniversary of the Taliban's return to power showed they are “determined to continue their brutal crackdown on the media."
The U.S.-based watchdog group noted that since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, the country's media have been in crisis, with arrests, raids on offices, and beatings.
Of the 150 Afghan TV channels, fewer than 70 remain, and only 170 radio stations of the 307 are still broadcasting, while the number of news agencies has declined to 18 from 31.
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