KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Journalists attending the “Gul Narang Mushaira” program in Nangarhar left the festival after being insulted by a Taliban official.
The event was held yesterday afternoon (Monday, May 4) and was hosted by the Taliban’s Department of Information and Culture in Jalalabad, the center of Nangarhar province.
Journalists who participated in the event said that an official from the songs section of the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture insulted them over the “installation of microphones on the stage,” using abusive language.
One journalist said that the Taliban official told reporters that “you are not even human” and called them “spies.”
According to him, journalists left the event in protest against the insult and refused to cover it.
The “Gul Narang Festival and Mushaira” is traditionally held every year at the beginning of the spring season in Nangarhar.
This year, the event was supposed to be held on April 9, but the Taliban’s Department of Information and Culture announced that it had been postponed.
At that time, sources told KabulNow newspaper that the Taliban had postponed the event due to concerns about possible attacks from Pakistan.
The event had also made headlines last solar year. Last year, Matiullah Turab, a well-known Pashto-language poet, criticized the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education during the program and called for the reopening of schools.
His critical poetry drew a strong reaction from the Taliban, and as a result, Sajid Khogyani, the former head of Information and Culture in Nangarhar, was dismissed.
The Taliban have also drafted and approved a “Regulation on Mushairas.” According to its provisions, criticism of the orders, directives, rulings, and decisions of Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada must be avoided during mushairas, and poems must also be free from encouraging relationships or “romantic love” between girls and boys.
This incident comes amid broader concerns about press freedom in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) recently reported that since May 2025, it has recorded at least 150 violations of press freedom, including 127 threats and 20 arrests of journalists, most of them attributed to the Taliban.
The report highlights increasing censorship, tighter control over media content, and growing restrictions on access to information. It also notes that bans on broadcasting images of living beings have expanded to most provinces, leading to the closure of several television stations, while others have been forced to alter their programming.
Additionally, multiple media outlets and support organizations have been shut down or had their licenses revoked, and restrictions on women journalists—including limits on broadcasting their voices—have further intensified.
Since the Taliban takeover, authorities have issued more than 20 directives regulating media activity, content approval, and access to information. These measures have contributed to the near-collapse of what was once a vibrant media sector, with dozens of outlets shut down or silenced and hundreds of journalists forced into exile or hiding.
Afghanistan ranked 175th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index, placing it among the worst globally.
The protection of journalists and the preservation of access to truthful information are not only essential for safeguarding human rights but also for ensuring peace, accountability, and the functioning of any just society.
