Afghanistan: multiple journalists arrested by Taliban intelligence
The targeting of media workers including through arbitrary arrests continues under Taliban rule.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in calling for the release of Mahdi Ansary and Hekmat Aryan, detained by Taliban officials.
On 29 September, Ansary was arrested by dozens of Taliban intelligence officers at his office in Ghazni City and accused of discussing past Taliban suicide attacks known as ‘martyrdom operations’ in a Khushal Radio broadcast. These claims have been denied by Sulaiman Rahel, radio news manager, but despite this, no information of Ansary’s whereabouts have been released since his detention on 5 October.
On 14 October, journalist Hekmat Aryan was sentenced to one month in prison for allegedly broadcasting content related to Taliban military operations. The court ruled that the time Aryan had already spent in detention at the Ghazni Intelligence Department would count towards his sentence, resulting in an additional 15 days in prison.
The NUJ condemns the arrests and joins the IFJ in urging authorities to cease the arbitrary detentions of journalists.
The IFJ has reported on the arrest of Mahdi Ansar on 5 October by the Taliban’s Intelligence Directorate in the Dasht-e-Barchi area of Kabul. Charges against Ansar and his whereabouts remain unknown, following searches by his family of several police stations.
Journalists in Afghanistan have been informed of a law prohibiting news media from publishing images of living things. The law first implemented under Taliban rule from 1996-2001 will be implemented gradually, according to information by the Taliban.
The IFJ said:
"Journalists in Afghanistan continue to face arbitrary and opaque arrests amid an ever shrinking legal environment. The IFJ continues to stand in solidarity with the journalists and media workers still in Afghanistan and in the diaspora, and urge the international community to increase support for our embattled colleagues."