KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Taliban morality police in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province detained 12 journalists while they were covering a book exhibition and confiscated their cameras as part of the group’s ban on images of living beings, the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) said.
The journalists were detained at about 9:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday in District 2 of Khost city, where they were filming the exhibition and conducting interviews, the media watchdog said, citing a local source.
The journalists were held for about an hour before being released, but their cameras remained in the possession of the Taliban authorities, according to the AFJC.
The watchdog said Taliban morality police, known as muhtasibs, obstructed the journalists’ work and escorted them on foot for about 10 minutes to their office along a crowded road. Some journalists walked in front of the officers and others behind them as bystanders watched, the AFJC said.
A local journalist told the AFJC that the group had been invited by the Taliban’s Department of Information and Culture in Khost to cover the exhibition. Despite the invitation, the morality police detained the journalists for about an hour, recorded their personal details, confiscated their cameras and ordered them to leave, the watchdog said.
The AFJC condemned the detention and called on the Taliban authorities to immediately return the journalists’ equipment.
“Detaining journalists and seizing their equipment while they are covering a public event is a degrading and inhumane act that violates their human dignity and professional rights,” the watchdog said, urging the authorities to end such treatment and allow journalists to work freely without fear of detention.
The detention comes amid the Taliban’s increasingly strict enforcement of restrictions on visual media. The group introduced a ban on the publication of images of living beings in August 2024, and the measure has since been implemented in 25 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, according to the AFJC.
The directive prohibits the publication of photographs and video footage showing “animate beings” and instructs journalists and media outlets to rely on written and audio reports instead of images.
The AFJC has previously reported that the restrictions have contributed to the closure of dozens of media outlets, while some television stations have switched to radio-style broadcasting to continue operating.
Press freedom, once viewed as a major achievement under the previous government, has declined sharply since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Afghanistan ranks 175th out of 180 countries on the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, just above Syria, Iran, North Korea and Eritrea.
Over half of the country’s media outlets have shut down, and many journalists have fled or gone into hiding. Female journalists face particularly severe restrictions, including bans on broadcasting their voices in some provinces, further limiting public access to independent news.
