Afghanistan Times
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KABUL – Since late July 2025, the Taliban’s security forces have arrested at least four media professionals in Kabul, escalating their ruthless crackdown on independent journalism. The General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) and the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice carried out raids targeting journalists and media workers, seizing equipment and detaining suspects in undisclosed locations.
Among those arrested is Abuzar Sarem Sarepuli, head of the Tawana News Agency and Afghanistan’s Journalists Organizations and Media Federation. He has been publicly paraded in a forced video confession, accused of “spying for foreign powers” and “widespread moral corruption”—common charges used by the Taliban to stifle free press. Others include freelancers working for international media, highlighting the regime’s efforts to silence voices reaching beyond Afghanistan’s borders.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned these actions as a blatant attack on press freedom and called for the immediate release of all detained journalists, return of confiscated equipment, and an end to intimidation tactics that threaten the very survival of independent media.
For Western audiences, this crackdown underscores the Taliban’s increasing isolation and authoritarian grip, as they systematically dismantle civil society pillars vital for transparency and democracy. The global community faces urgent questions about how to support Afghan journalists risking their lives to report the truth under a regime hostile to free expression.
