Taliban bans radio broadcasts of VOA and RFE/RL in Afghanistan
New York, December 1, 2022 – Taliban authorities must cease their intensifying crackdown on the media in Afghanistan and reinstate the radio transmissions of the U.S. Congress-funded broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. The Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture issued the ban, which went…
Taliban shuts down two news websites in Afghanistan
New York, October 4, 2022 – Taliban authorities must stop censoring news coverage in Afghanistan and allow Hasht-e Subh Daily and Zawia News to operate under their internet domain names, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Monday, October 3, the Taliban’s Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology said it had shut down the websites of Hasht-e Subh Daily and Zawia News due to “false propaganda” against the Taliban, according to a tweet from the ministry’s spokesperson Anayatullah Alokozay and…
Taliban intelligence agents detain American filmmaker Ivor Shearer, Afghan producer Faizullah Faizbakhsh in Kabul
New York, August 19, 2022 – Taliban authorities must immediately release American journalist and independent filmmaker Ivor Shearer and Afghan producer Faizullah Faizbakhsh, and cease detaining journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On August 17, Shearer and Faizbakhsh were filming in the Sherpur area of District 10 in Kabul–where a U.S. drone strike…
Taliban members beat, threaten, Afghan journalist Saboor Raufi
New York, August 18, 2022 – Taliban authorities must investigate the beating and harassment of journalist Saboor Raufi and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Monday, August 15, two armed Taliban members beat Raufi, an anchor and reporter with Afghanistan’s independent Ariana News TV station, while he was…
Journalist safety, press freedom groups urge U.S. Secretary of State Blinken to expedite visas for Afghan journalists
Press freedom and journalist safety organizations urge Secretary of State Blinken and the Department of State to take every possible step to expedite the processing of Priority 2-referred Afghans under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and Special Immigrant Visa applications from at-risk Afghan citizens, and in particular journalists.
CPJ’s recommendations for protecting journalists and press freedom in Afghanistan
The Committee to Protect Journalists makes the following recommendations to facilitate media freedom and ensure the safety of journalists in Afghanistan: To the Taliban, the de facto authorities in Afghanistan 1. Respect and guarantee the ability of all journalists and media workers to report and produce news freely and independently, without fear of reprisal, in…
Kathy Gannon: Courageous journalism is happening in Afghanistan. We can help.
Journalism in today’s Afghanistan is certainly wounded, but it’s far from dead. The evidence is produced daily, even hourly: This is not journalism as it was before the Taliban took power last August, but it is journalism. It demands our respect and support. Sounding the death knell on journalism in Afghanistan is an insult to…
‘I thought about the efforts and struggles of two decades… and cried’
The founder of a news agency dedicated to covering the lives and concerns of Afghan women on how female journalists are still reporting the news In November 2020, I decided to create an Afghan news agency run by and for women—an online news service that would counter the prevailing patriarchal norms of Afghanistan. The news…
Keeping hope alive
Afghan journalists in exile continue reporting despite an uncertain future “I lost my family, my job, my identity, and my country,” Afghan journalist Anisa Shaheed told CPJ in a phone interview. A former Kabul-based reporter for TOLONews, Afghanistan’s largest local broadcaster, Shaheed is one of hundreds of journalists who fled Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover…
Inside an Afghan news network’s struggle to survive
Threats, insults, beatings, and censorship: Former Ariana News staffers detail dire challenges during a year under Taliban control For veteran journalist Sharif Hassanyar, the final breaking point came in September last year. The Taliban had ousted the elected government of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani almost a month earlier, and the last American soldiers had since…