Image used for representational purpose.
| Photo Credit: AFP

More than 300 Afghan journalists have suffered rights breaches since the Taliban surged back to power in 2021, a United Nations report said Tuesday, documenting dozens of cases of torture and arbitrary arrest.

Afghanistan’s media sector has dramatically shrunk under three years of Taliban government, while international monitors have criticised Kabul’s new rulers for allegedly trampling reporters’ rights.

Research by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and its Geneva-based Human Rights Office said journalists and media outlets “operate under an environment of censorship and tight restrictions”.

Between the Taliban’s return in August 2021 and the end of this September the UN team “documented instances of human rights violations affecting 336 journalists and media workers”, the report said.

It recounted 256 instances of “arbitrary arrest and detention”, 130 of “torture and ill-treatment” and 75 of “threats or intimidation”.

UNAMA chief Roza Otunbayeva said journalists “often face unclear rules on what they can and cannot report, running the risk of intimidation and arbitrary detention for perceived criticism”.

Reacting to the report, Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said “Afghan media must consider the national interest and Islamic values and avoid spreading rumors”.

He said if journalists repeatedly violated the Taliban government’s media conduct code “they will be detained, however no one has been held too long in detention”.

When the Taliban seized power after their two-decade insurgency, Afghanistan had some 8,400 media employees including 1,700 women.

Only 5,100 remain in the profession – including 560 women – according to people working in the industry, as the Taliban government has introduced far-reaching curbs including shutting women out of the public sphere.

“Every effort must be made to ensure that journalists and media workers, and that includes all women, are respected and protected,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said.

Since 2021 Afghanistan has slipped from 122nd place to 178th in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom ranking of 180 countries.