KABUL – Afghanistan’s independent media has suffered unprecedented repression in the four years since the Taliban seized power, with press freedom plunging to near the bottom of global rankings, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) warned on Friday.
In a statement marking the August 15 anniversary of the Taliban takeover, the IFJ denounced the regime for systematically dismantling independent journalism through censorship, harassment, arbitrary arrests, and restrictions targeting women in media.
The group urged the Taliban to guarantee journalists’ safety and called on the international community to increase support for Afghan media workers, both inside the country and in exile.
Afghanistan now ranks 178th out of 180 countries in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, falling 44 places in just one year.
More than half of the country’s media outlets have shut down since 2021, including 22 closures in the past year alone. Of roughly 470 outlets still operating, most can only publish content in line with Taliban directives, according to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2025.
The report documented 48 press freedom violations and 28 journalist arrests between May 2024 and April 2025, along with persistent surveillance and intimidation. In July, seven media workers were detained for alleged links to the UN and for supporting women’s employment in media. Other incidents include the August 7 detention of three staff from Radio Nasim in Daikundi, and the May jailing of Radio Khoshhal editor Solaiman Rahil for critical social media posts.
The crackdown has hit women journalists hardest. Their numbers have dropped from 2,833 before 2021 to just 747 in 2025—a 74% decline. Since April 2024, the Taliban has banned women’s voices from broadcast media, adding to a series of directives that exclude women from public life, limit their mobility, and prohibit education beyond primary grade.
The IFJ said 54 of the 80 media-related directives issued since 2021 specifically target women.
Additional restrictions ban depictions of living beings, music, political programming, and policy debates.
“The independent media landscape has been decimated, and ever-increasing draconian directives have regressed fundamental rights to new lows,” the IFJ said, pledging continued solidarity with Afghan journalists who have “continued to hold truth to power in an extraordinarily hostile environment under Taliban rule.”
