KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban’s intelligence agency operates a special unit that monitors, threatens, arrests and tortures journalists as part of efforts to silence independent media and control public narratives in Afghanistan, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in an investigative report published on Wednesday.
According to the report, the unit, known as Bureau 015, was established after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and operates under the group’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI). Its agents, based in Kabul and other provinces, monitor media content, summon journalists for questioning and conduct raids on media offices.
The unit also works with the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to arrest journalists and seize media equipment, the report said. RSF cited raids on TOLOnews television in May 2026 and the offices of Afghan media organizations in July 2025.
“A veritable apparatus of surveillance, intimidation, and repression has been established by the Taliban to muzzle the Afghan press,” said Celia Mercier, head of RSF’s South Asia office. “Bureau 015 is at the heart of this system, in which journalists are treated as enemies of the regime simply for doing their jobs,” she said, citing arbitrary arrests, threats, interrogations and torture.
The report documented testimonies from Afghan journalists who described arbitrary arrests, threats, interrogations and torture by Bureau 015 and other branches of the Taliban intelligence agency. Their names were changed for security reasons.
One journalist, identified as Farhad, said intelligence agents covered his head with a black bag, searched his phone and computer, and accused him of espionage over his reporting on daily life in Afghanistan.
He said he was transferred to Unit 015 several days after his arrest and held in a small cell for two weeks, where he was repeatedly interrogated and pressured to identify other journalists.
“They beat me very violently on the back and feet; they also used a stun gun,” he told RSF, adding that he continues to suffer from the effects of the torture.
Another journalist, identified as Ahmad, said he was beaten until he lost consciousness during questioning at Unit 015 before being transferred to another intelligence facility. During his detention, agents took him to a hill at 2 a.m., pressed a gun against his temple and told him they had killed others like him at the same location, he said.
Ahmad said he was later sentenced to prison on charges of “propaganda against the regime.” After several months, he was transferred to Bagram prison, north of Kabul, where his hands and feet remained restrained even when he used the toilet. He fled Afghanistan after his release.
A third journalist, identified as Abdul, who is now in exile, told RSF that Taliban agents pressured him to avoid reporting on women’s rights, security incidents and poverty. Instead, they wanted him to invite Taliban supporters to his programs.
RSF said its investigation also found that Bureau 015 plays a central role in the Taliban’s online propaganda operations. One section monitors social media content, while another is responsible for propaganda campaigns, spreading disinformation and influencing public opinion.
The bureau also operates a studio used to produce videos and record forced confessions from detainees, the report said.
Citing documents reportedly obtained from the Taliban’s intelligence agency and published by several Afghan media outlets in September 2026, RSF said the Taliban has allocated 70.7 million Afghanis, equivalent to more than 900,000 euros, for influence and propaganda operations.
The documents also referred to nearly 1,500 social media accounts allegedly used to promote the Taliban’s narrative, discredit opponents and spread content supporting the group.
An RSF analysis of posts published by some of the accounts on X found that several shared identical or similar messages within minutes of one another. Some accounts also used female identities or presented themselves as residents of Panjshir province, the report said.
The Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, Hamdullah Fitrat, told RSF that the group’s intelligence agencies, including Unit 015, “operate in accordance with the law and that no one is arbitrarily detained or mistreated.” However, RSF said testimonies from journalists and evidence gathered by the organization, as well as findings by Human Rights Watch, contradict the Taliban’s claims.
Press freedom, once regarded as one of the achievements of the previous Western-backed government, has sharply reversed since the Taliban takeover. More than half of Afghanistan’s media outlets have closed. Many journalists have fled the country or gone into hiding. Women journalists face particularly tight restrictions, including bans on broadcasting female voices in some provinces.
Afghanistan ranked 175th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2026 World Press Freedom Index. The organization also included Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada among 33 individuals and entities on its 2026 list of “press freedom predators.”
