Reporters Without Borders: Taliban suppresses Afghan journalists by forcing confessions.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has announced that the Taliban are suppressing Afghan journalists by pressuring and forcing them to confess.
The organization said in a report on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, that Mehdi Ansari, a journalist for the Afghan News Agency, was forced to make a confession after being arrested on charges of producing “anti-Taliban propaganda,” and the video of the confession was published on the “Voice of Hindu Kush” page affiliated with the Taliban’s intelligence department.
According to the report, Ansari was arrested in October 2024 and sentenced to one and a half years in prison in January 2025 and then transferred to Bagram prison.
In addition to calling for his immediate release, RSF is also demanding the release of six other journalists. The organization also said that other journalists, including Abuzar Sarem Sarpoli and Shakib Nazari, have also been forced to make confessions and that a group of journalists have been detained by the Taliban.
Reporters Without Borders says these measures are part of a policy of instilling fear and restricting independent media in Afghanistan.
At least 165 journalists have been arrested since the Taliban returned to power, and Afghanistan ranks 175th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
