RASC News Agency: On World Press Freedom Day, the UN Women’s division reported that 80% of female journalists in Afghanistan have been forced to leave their profession and stay home due to restrictions, harassment, and intimidation by the Taliban. The UN Women’s division stated on its X account on Friday, May 3, “On World Press Freedom Day and every day, we continue to support media initiatives and female journalists who strive for women’s rights and gender equality.”
May 3 is World Press Freedom Day. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the group has imposed severe restrictions on the country’s media and repeatedly imprisoned and threatened journalists. Meanwhile, the Afghanistan Journalists Center reported in its annual report that over the past year, it has documented 136 incidents of media and journalist freedom violations, including 73 threats and 64 instances of journalist detentions by the Taliban.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center stated that, in addition to the Taliban’s intelligence agency, the group’s Department for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice also summons, interrogates, and detains journalists. According to the center’s report, in the past year, the Taliban have implemented new forms of pressure on the media and journalists.
The center noted that these restrictions include limits on access to information, monitoring of reports before and after publication, surveillance of journalists’ activities on social media, and economic pressures on media outlets through increased taxes and additional expenses.
