KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban intelligence agents have detained a local journalist in Afghanistan’s central Daykundi province, accusing him of “spreading propaganda” against the group, sources told KabulNow.
Ehsan Mahdavi was detained at his home in Pato district a week ago and is currently being held in a Taliban detention center in Nili, the provincial capital, according to sources.
Mahdavi previously worked for local radio and the Pajhwok Afghan Agency, a news outlet in Afghanistan. After the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, he left for Iran to pursue his studies and has recently returned to Afghanistan, the sources said.
Local Taliban authorities have not yet commented on Mahdavi’s detention.
This incident marks the latest case of journalist detentions by the Taliban since their return to power in Afghanistan. Over the past three years, the regime has detained, tortured, and, in some cases, even killed dozens of journalists and media workers in the country.
In most cases, the Taliban accuses journalists and media workers of collaborating with exiled media outlets, spreading anti-Taliban propaganda.
In October, journalist Mahdi Ansary was arrested in Kabul on similar charges. A Taliban court later sentenced him to one and a half years in prison. In 2023, the Taliban court in Daykundi sentenced Sultan Ali Jawadi, the manager of Radio Nasim, to a year in prison on similar accusations.
The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) documented 131 threats and 50 detentions of journalists in its 2024 annual report. The report also noted that five journalists are currently serving prison sentences ranging from one to five years.
