Afghan journalist Ruhollah Sangar (file photo)

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 Province.

The Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence released Sangar on December 19 in Charikar, prompting the Afghanistan Journalist Center (AFJC), a local media watchdog, to welcome his release, noting in a statement that his arrest “violated the country’s media law.”

The AFCJ said that Afghan law requires authorities to help journalists who should be able to carry out their activities without “restrictions or threats.”

On December 12, the Taliban handed down a one-year sentence to journalist Sultan Ali Jawadi in the central province of Daikundi.

He headed the local broadcaster Nasim Radio and was convicted for “propaganda against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” and “espionage for foreign countries” by rebroadcasting the programs of banned international media.

The Taliban has also been holding journalist Abdul Rahim Mohammadi in the southern Kandahar Province since December 4. He works for independent Afghan broadcaster Tamadon TV.

AFJC has documented an alarming rise in the harassment of journalists in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan since March. It has documented 75 incidents of journalists being detained or threatened. Some 33 journalists were arrested during this period, while various branches of the Taliban government threatened another 42.

“The majority of these arrests were carried out by the intelligence department,” the organization said.

The Afghan Free Media Support Organization (NAI) also expressed concern over the rising Taliban intimidation of journalists.

“During the past few days, the Afghan media has seen a rise in coercive behavior towards journalists in different parts of the country,” a December 18 statement by the group said. “This situation has caused serious concerns.”

Abdul Qayyum Wiar, the head of local NGO the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, said the Taliban should ratify the country’s media law to fill the legal vacuum as soon as possible. The Taliban suspended many laws that the previous pro-Western Afghan government had implemented.

“We need a law to determine the responsibilities and duties of both [the journalists and the government]; we will not be able to achieve anything from discussions and demands,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

After returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban promised to allow freedom of the press, but instead it has tortured and arrested dozens of journalists.

It has also shut down independent radio stations, television studios, and newspapers. Hundreds of media outlets have also closed after losing funding.

The Taliban’s hard-line government has banned some international broadcasters while some foreign correspondents were denied visas.

The ultraconservative Islamist group has also driven hundreds of Afghan journalists into exile.

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