RASC News Agency: The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, have called for the immediate and unconditional release of two Radio Begum employees detained by the Taliban. On Thursday, February 6, UNAMA stated that the two male employees of Radio Begum had been arrested by the Taliban, and their whereabouts remain unknown. Bennett underscored the urgency of their immediate release, condemning the Taliban’s increasing crackdown on media freedom.
“UNAMA calls for the release of individuals detained solely for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression,” the mission declared in a statement. Bennett further urged the Taliban to cease their arbitrary arrests, intimidation, and suppression of journalists. This development follows the Taliban’s recent closure of Radio Begum’s office in Kabul and the detention of two of its staff members. According to Radio Begum’s management, officials from the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture, in coordination with intelligence forces, raided the station’s Kabul office, arresting two male employees who held no senior managerial roles.
The station further revealed that Taliban forces seized computers, hard drives, official documents, and the mobile phones of female journalists during the raid. The Afghanistan Journalists’ Center strongly condemned the Taliban’s forced shutdown of Radio Begum, denouncing it as another step in their systematic assault on press freedom and independent media. Since retaking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have repeatedly targeted media institutions, detained journalists, and imposed severe restrictions on independent reporting. Observers warn that the group’s escalating repression threatens the very survival of free and independent journalism in the country.
