Press freedom group urges Taliban to release detained Afghan journalist News
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Press freedom group urges Taliban to release detained Afghan journalist

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Tuesday called on Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to immediately release journalist Shikib Ahmad Nazari, who has been detained since July following a raid on his Kabul office.

In a statement, CPJ Asia-Pacific director Beh Lih Yi urged, “They should release the journalist immediately, and stop coercing journalists into making confessions, which underscores their atrocious treatment of the press.”

CPJ noted that Nazari’s detention is the latest in a series of Taliban crackdowns targeting Afghan journalists working with international media. Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, human rights groups and press freedom advocates have documented arbitrary arrests, intimidation, and censorship. 

Nazari, a reporter for Japanese outlet Nippon TV News, was taken into custody by Taliban intelligence agents on July 24. His family told CPJ that authorities provided no warrant or formal explanation for his arrest, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

International organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have previously warned that restrictions on independent media undermine Afghans’ right to information and violate obligations under international human rights law. 

This is not the first time Afghan journalists have faced repression under Taliban rule. The CPJ previously urged the Taliban to lift its restrictive prohibition on the airing of political and economic programs by local Afghan media outlets. Reporters have been detained, beaten, and barred from covering public protests, while some media outlets have been forced to shut down. 

The Taliban have similarly been condemned over violations of other human rights, such as their systematic restriction of women’s rights, which led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders over their gender-based prosecution.

The Taliban have not commented publicly on Nazari’s detention.

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