KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban’s primary court in Kabul has sentenced journalist and YouTuber Mahdi Ansary to one and a half years in prison on charges of “propaganda” against the regime.
According to the court’s ruling, which was reviewed by KabulNow, Ansary’s trial took place a week ago. During the session, Taliban judges Sakhidad Rasikh and Hedayatullah Rahmani accused him of spreading propaganda against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban). His prison term began on October 5, 2024, the day he was detained.
Ansary went missing on October 5, but the Taliban later notified his family that he had been arrested. According to his relatives, he worked as a journalist for Afghan News, a private local news agency, and had recently launched a YouTube channel.
The Taliban’s intelligence agency informed his family that his detention was related to videos posted on his YouTube channel. One such video featured a speech by Waez Zadah Behsoudi, a prominent Shia cleric, who criticized the Taliban’s morality laws and the destruction of the statue of Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari in Kabul.
In response to the Taliban’s sentencing of Ansary, the Afghanistan Journalist Center (AFJC), an Afghan media watchdog, expressed concern over press freedom in Afghanistan. The watchdog called on the Taliban to review Ansary’s sentence and to release him, along with other detained journalists, immediately and unconditionally.
This is not the first time the Taliban has detained and sentenced Afghan journalists on charges of propaganda against the regime. Last year, the Taliban court in central Daykundi province sentenced Sultan Ali Jawadi, a local journalist and manager of Radio Nasim, to one year in prison for “spreading propaganda” against the Taliban.
Since taking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban has issued at least 21 directives that severely restrict press freedom and access to information. The regime has also detained, tortured, and, in some cases, killed dozens of journalists and media workers across the country.
In its 2024 annual report, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) noted a rise in media and journalist rights violations under the Taliban. The watchdog recorded 131 threats and 50 journalist detentions in 2024, with five journalists still serving prison sentences ranging from one to five years.
