CPJ Urges Taliban to End Crackdown on Afghan Media

DID Press: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Taliban to end its crackdown on the media, particularly against women journalists, and lift sweeping restrictions on access to independent information.

In a statement marking the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power, the CPJ said the group’s policies had sharply reduced public access to independent information and created conditions for the expansion of a state-controlled propaganda system.

The organization said the Taliban barred women journalists from working in state-run media after taking control of Kabul and assaulted journalists covering protests.According to the CPJ, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of journalists have been used as tools of censorship since the Taliban’s first year in power.

Khaled Qadiri, a journalist with Radio Nowruz in Herat, was among the first journalists to be convicted and imprisoned over his professional activities.Waliullah Rahmani, the CPJ’s representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the Taliban had made Afghanistan one of the world’s most difficult countries for journalists to work in over the past five years.

“Journalists are monitored, arrested and censored or forced into exile,” Rahmani said, adding that women journalists face even greater discrimination.The CPJ also cited restrictions on internet access and telecommunications, saying they have strengthened the Taliban’s control over the information environment.

The organization said censorship is now systematically applied to topics that can be covered by the media and that independent Afghan media outlets have effectively disappeared.

Hundreds of journalists have been forced to leave the country, while many face the risk of detention or forced deportation in neighboring countries.