New York, September 30, 2026—Taliban authorities should immediately permit the independent Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) to reopen its Kabul office, release reporter Zamin Ali Chavoshi and five other detained media workers, and halt their escalating campaign against news organizations serving Afghanistan’s persecuted Shiite Hazara community, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
On September 24, Taliban security personnel raided the AVA office, verbally abused an employee who was present, seized equipment and documents, sealed the premises, and detained the agency’s security manager, according to the Afghanistan Journalists Center, an exiled watchdog group, and an Afghan journalist familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Two days later, Taliban officials contacted several current and former journalists, columnists, and writers associated with AVA, some of whom also work with its sister organization, the Tebyan Social and Cultural Centre, and instructed them by phone to report to the ministry, the journalist told CPJ. Five were detained after appearing there, including staff reporter Chavoshi. The journalist did not identify the other four detainees, who were described as current or former writers who had contributed to the agency on a freelance basis.
“The closure of the Afghan Voice Agency and the detention of journalist Zamin Ali Chavoshi, the agency’s security manager, and four other writers reflect an increasingly systematic effort by the Taliban to silence what remains of media serving Afghanistan’s Hazara and Shiite communities,” said CPJ’s Afghanistan and Pakistan representative Waliullah Rahmani. “This crackdown appears to mark a further deterioration in Afghanistan’s media environment, with authorities increasingly moving against outlets linked to particular ethnic and religious communities, including organizations that have not openly challenged Taliban policies. Taliban authorities must immediately free Chavoshi and the other five detained media workers and allow the Afghan Voice Agency to resume operations at its Kabul office.”
Taliban authorities have not publicly explained the raid or informed the agency’s senior management why its office was shut, according to the journalist.
Although its Kabul premises remain sealed, the AVA continues publishing through its website, which remains accessible and carries reporting on developments in Afghanistan.
On September 6, Taliban authorities raided Rah-e-Farda TV, another media organization serving Hazara and Shiite audiences, and forced it to suspend operations for the second time this year. Authorities also detained its owner, Salman Akhlaqi, and sealed the outlet’s offices.
On June 23, armed personnel from the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice raided the Kabul headquarters of Shiite-owned Tamadon TV and ordered the station closed. During the first week of September, Tamadon TV announced that it had resumed broadcasting online from exile, though CPJ was unable to determine whether the outlet was operating from inside Afghanistan or from exile.
The Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture did not respond to CPJ’s email seeking comment.