Mansoor Niazi, a news anchor and reporter at TOLOnews, is on bail awaiting trial on unspecified charges after Taliban officials arrested him on May 5.
Niazi was arrested at his home in District 3 of the Afghan capital city, Kabul, and held until June 24, according to CPJ’s interview with Imran Danish, a news anchor and head of the political desk at TOLOnews, who was detained on the same day.
On May 10, shortly after TOLOnews reported the journalists’ arrests on social media, dozens of Taliban intelligence officers raided the broadcaster’s parent company Moby Group’s office in Kabul. Armed personnel confiscated employees’ phones, questioned staff for several hours, and placed staff under surveillance.
Taliban intelligence agents also took control of Niazi’s social media account and posted messages suggesting he was at home, raising concerns about coercion.
Khabib Ghufran, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture, confirmed on May 12 that Niazi had been arrested but did not provide further information about his charges.
Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have decimated Afghanistan’s independent media sector and supplanted it with their own propaganda empire. Taliban authorities have arrested a number of journalists reporting for exiled media and forced hundreds to flee to neighboring countries.
Taliban Deputy Spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat did not reply to CPJ’s text messages requesting comment.