Afghanistan Journalists Center Calls for Release of Journalists from Taliban Custody

The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) has expressed deep concern over the continued detention of journalists and media workers by the Taliban and has called for their immediate and unconditional release.

In its latest update on the situation of journalists in Afghanistan, the Center reported that freelance journalist Sayed Rashid Kashifi was arrested on Monday (April 14) in Kabul by the Taliban’s intelligence agency, which also confiscated his professional equipment.

According to the Center, the Taliban’s intelligence agency detained Kashifi on charges of collaborating with exiled media outlets.

A reliable source confirmed to the AFJC that earlier, on March 16, the Taliban had seized Kashifi’s work equipment, including his voice recorder, camera, and mobile phone.

The source added that before his arrest, Kashifi had been summoned several times by the Taliban’s press office to retrieve his equipment, but he refused to comply out of fear of being arrested.

The AFJC condemned the detention of Kashifi and other journalists and urged the Taliban to release all imprisoned journalists without conditions. According to the Center’s statistics, 10 journalists and media workers are currently either detained by the Taliban or serving prison sentences. Of these, six have been sentenced by Taliban courts to prison terms ranging from seven months to three years.

Since coming to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed numerous restrictions, including a ban on publishing content without prior approval from authorities, a ban on live political debates on television, a prohibition on women’s voices being broadcast in some provinces, and a ban on images of living beings under the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law, now enforced in 14 provinces. These restrictions have led to the shutdown of dozens of media outlets and forced hundreds of journalists to flee the country.

Those few journalists who remain active inside Afghanistan risk arrest and torture by the Taliban’s intelligence forces if they defy the group’s restrictions or collaborate with media outlets operating in exile.