Amu: Taliban have effectively dismantled media freedom in Afghanistan since seizing power in August 2021, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday, citing systematic surveillance, censorship, arbitrary detentions and torture of journalists, with women in the media bearing the brunt of the crackdown. The 2025 report, based on dozens of interviews with journalists in Afghanistan and in exile, outlines a media landscape hollowed out by repression. Many outlets have shut down, thousands of journalists have fled, and those who remain face daily threats of arrest, violence or professional bans. Those in exile are now under threat of forced return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. “Taliban officials increasingly compel Afghan journalists to produce ‘safe,’ pre-approved stories, and they punish those who step out of line with arbitrary detention and torture,” said Fereshta Abbasi, HRW’s Afghanistan researcher. “While all Afghan journalists have been affected, women journalists have been among the hardest hit.” Click here to read more (external link).