VOA Afghan Service January 26, 2024 Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Thursday detained an Afghan poet, Izatullah Zawab, who serves as the head of Meena (Love) magazine in eastern Afghanistan, as part of an ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression and independent media in the country, family members posted on social media. The family members said Zawab was
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi January 22, 2024 The Taliban has detained another Afghan journalist in the country’s capital, Kabul, in a continuing crackdown on independent media in Afghanistan. Media watchdog the Afghanistan Journalist Center (AFJC) said Taliban intelligence officers detained Ehsan Akbari, an Afghan reporter for Japan’s Kyodo news agency. “The arrest of this journalist shows
8am: In the male-dominated Afghan society, if a man intends to demean another, he targets the honor of his relatives, primarily women. Everyday insults in the city and markets exemplify this approach. With this understanding, the Taliban now resort to abducting and torturing women, sometimes accompanied by sexual assault, to further humiliate society. This is
Tolo News: According to the RSF, Vietnam, Russia and Afghanistan are also among the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. “Spying charges are also used against journalists in Afghanistan, where Mortaza Behboudi’s long-awaited release on 18 October 2023 underscored the dangers of journalism under the Taliban, who have been persecuting independent media ever since retaking
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi December 19, 2023 An Afghan journalist detained by the Taliban’s intelligence service has been released amid increasing concerns over mounting Taliban harassment of Afghan journalists. The Taliban detained Ruhollah Sangar, a correspondent for the independent Tolo TV, on December 17 while he was reporting from Charikar, the capital of the northern Parwan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty December 13, 2023 Afghan and international media watchdogs have condemned Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers for handing down a one-year sentence to journalist Sultan Ali Jawadi on unspecified charges and called for his immediate release, along with the freeing of another recently detained media member. In a December 12 statement, the Afghanistan
8am: The Taliban possesses several official and well-known YouTubers who are engaged in whitewashing this group. Although Humayun Afghan is not an official and public supporter of the Taliban, in some cases, following the YouTubers of the Taliban, he promotes in favor of the Taliban. It is not clear if he is doing this to
VOA News October 24, 2023 An Afghan-French journalist who spent 284 days imprisoned in Afghanistan has recalled how he was beaten, nearly choked, and interrogated. Speaking at a news conference in the French capital, Paris, on Monday, the newly released Mortaza Behboudi said he didn’t think he would make it out of custody alive. The
8am: The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) has reported that over the past two years, the Taliban have issued 13 directives systematically limiting media freedom and access to information in the country. On the occasion of the International Day for Universal Access to Information,” this organization released a statement on Thursday, September 28, asserting that the
Akmal Dawi VOA News August 30, 2023 In 2016, a young girl, whom we will call Zarghona to protect her identity, embarked on a remarkable journey in central-south Afghanistan. At just 14 years old, she joined a local radio station in Ghazni province, eager to make her voice heard. Initially entrusted with a daily entertainment