The Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement called on the Islamic Emirate to “stop its relentless campaign of media intimidation and abide by its promise to protect journalists in Afghanistan.”

Access to reliable and trustworthy information can help save lives and livelihoods in a crisis, but the Taliban’s escalating crackdown on media is doing the opposite.”

This comes as some journalists expressed concern over lack of access to information and the arbitrary detention of the journalists.

“We call on the Islamic Emirate to provide access to information and provide support to the media,” said Mehdi, a journalist.

“Two years after the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s once vibrant free press is a ghost of its former self,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. Beh Lih Yi added that “worsening media repression is isolating Afghanistan from the rest of the world, at a time when the country is grappling with one of the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies.

Masror Lutfi, the head of the Afghanistan National Journalists Union (ANJU) said that the independence of the media needs to be respected.

“For media activities to be continued properly, there is a need for media independence to be respected. The legal issues which were supporting the media community should be implemented again,” he said.

However, the deputy Minister of Information and Culture (MoIC), Mahaajar Farahi, accused the CPJ of not observing neutrality in forming the report.

Farahi said that if the journalists are committed to their professions, there is no reason to detain them.

Ataullah Omar, the journalist of TOLOnews in Kandahar, was detained by the Islamic Emirate.