Taliban’s Promotion of Virtue: Journalists collaborating with exiled media “Are permitted to be killed”

KABUL: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently announced that the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice considers journalists working with exiled media to be “permitted to be killed.” The committee reported the arrest of Shakib Ahmad Nazari, an Afghan journalist collaborating with foreign media. According to CPJ, Nazari was detained on July 24 after a Taliban raid on his office in Kabul. His arrest was reportedly confirmed following the publication of a video on a Taliban-related account on X account n August 21, which was later deleted. In the video, Nazari stated that he had been working with the Japanese media outlet “Nippon TV News” and had published content from women’s rights activists who criticized the Taliban’s promotion of virtue. Reports indicate that over the past four years, the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Intelligence has arrested and tortured hundreds of journalists, with some being killed. These actions have repeatedly drawn criticism from media advocacy organizations and governments, yet the Taliban has never responded to these criticisms.