Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned what it calls the Taliban’s “intolerable repressive tactics” against journalists, following the arrests of at least four media professionals and associates in Kabul since July 22.
According to RSF, the arrests were carried out in raids by the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) and the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. All four detainees remain in custody, and one has appeared in what RSF described as a “staged confession” video admitting to alleged crimes, including “widespread moral corruption.”
“These latest arrests and forced ‘confessions’ are a terrifying escalation of the Taliban’s relentless campaign to eradicate independent journalism in Afghanistan,” said Célia Mercier, head of RSF’s South Asia desk. “This new method of intimidation violates both the right to a fair trial and press freedom. This repression must stop. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of all media professionals, the return of their seized equipment and an end to the use of these despicable methods of intimidation. The world must not look away while the Taliban seeks to silence journalism.”
RSF detailed the incidents:
July 22: A Kabul-based website designer, whose identity is being withheld for safety reasons, was detained and accused of helping design and maintain websites for exiled media outlets. They were transferred to a GDI detention center at an undisclosed location.
July 23: Three media professionals were arrested in a raid on the offices of the Afghanistan’s Journalists Organizations and Media Federation. Their equipment was seized. Among them was Abuzar Sarem Sarepuli, head of both the Federation and the Tawana News Agency, accused of organizing journalism training for women, “receiving foreign funding” and “passing secret reports” to media considered hostile to Islam. He later appeared in a Taliban-produced video “confessing” to “spying for foreign powers” and “widespread moral corruption.”
The other two detainees — Mohammad Bashir Hatef, a freelancer for Zhwandoon TV, and Shakib Nazari, a freelancer for Japan’s i24 News — are also being held at an unknown location.
RSF has called for the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees, the return of their confiscated equipment, and an end to what it calls “abhorrent intimidation.”
