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Persecution of Press Intensified in The Final Months of 2024

  • Belarusian Association of Journalists

In the final quarter of 2024, there was a rise in the criminal prosecution of journalists, both domestically and in absentia, along with more frequent searches of journalists’ homes and offices, and a wider scope of censorship. The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has documented these alarming developments in a recent statement.

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Why Do Belarusian Journalists Risk Their Lives For The Truth?

  • The Journal
  • Sasha Romanova

41 Belarusian journalists remain behind bars since 2020, punished for covering protests against presidential election fraud that gave Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in power. Their prison sentences range from 3 to 15 years, simply for doing their jobs — reporting the news. Hundreds more have fled the country. Yet they continue their work. Why?

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Taliban Have Detained 300 Media Workers Since 2021

  • Amu TV
  • Habib Mohammadi

The Afghanistan Journalists in Exile in a statement on Sunday said that the Taliban have detained at least 300 journalists and media workers during their three years of rule in the country, describing the detainees as having endured “profound and indescribable violence” while in custody.

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What has Taliban Rule Meant for Media in Afghanistan?

  • Al Jazeera English

Since the Taliban regained power, Afghanistan’s media landscape has faced severe restrictions. Al Jazeera English sat down with Lotfullah Najafizada, the former head of Tolo News, to discuss working in exile and keeping the spirit of Afghan journalism alive.

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In Pakistan Afghan Journalists Face a Grim Reality

  • ABC News
  • Trisha Mukherjee

Afghan journalists in exile confront harsh challenges: after escaping Taliban persecution, they now endure poverty, threats of deportation, and years-long waits for humanitarian visas in Pakistan. Many now struggle with mental health crises as Western nations delay promised aid.

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Afghanistan: The Taliban are Banning ‘Living Beings’ on TV

  • Deutsche Welle
  • Shakila Ebrahimkhil, Hely Asad, Shabnam Alokozay

Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, detentions, imprisonments, and torture of journalists have surged, creating a “shadow of restriction and oppression” over press freedom in Afghanistan. Recently the Taliban have ordered TV channels in parts of Afghanistan to cease broadcasting images of living beings, after already banning music and female faces on screen.

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Afghanistan Faces a Future Without Voice or Image

  • 8AM
  • Amin Kawa

The Taliban have aggressively targeted media freedom and journalists over the past three years. They have banned photography and filming, mandated pro-Taliban reporting, used violence against journalists and media staff, carried out arrests, imposed severe censorship, threatened to shut down media institutions, and exploited journalists’ vulnerable status.

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Misuse of Economic Charges to Silence and Attack the Press

  • World Association of News Publishers
  • Lucinda Jordaan

The autocratic playbook of abusing or introducing economic laws to curtail journalists and newsrooms by attacking their credibility and financial viability is sharply outlined in a new report by WAN-IFRA and the IAPA.

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Afghanistan: “An Unfinished Journey”

  • CBC

In a new documentary four Afghan women – former parliamentarians, a past minister and a journalist — who fled their homeland after the Taliban-takeover of in August 2021, spotlight the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. “An Unfinished Journey” captures their resilience in exile as they advocate for women’s rights and strive to keep Afghanistan’s plight in global discussions.

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Chronicle of Repression Against Belarusian Journalism

  • Press Club Belarus

What has happened to the Belarusian media and journalists since the day of the presidential elections — from 9 August 2020 until today — is an unprecedented case of the eradication of independent journalism in a single country, in the centre of Europe, in the 21st century.

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What Does the Taliban’s New Law Mean for Journalists?

  • 8am Media
  • Eleanor Pugsley

The Taliban’s new law on the “Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” bans journalists from publishing or broadcasting content the de facto government believes violates Sharia law or insults Muslims. Article 17 describes several restrictions on the media, including a ban on publishing or broadcasting images of living people and animals which the Taliban consider unislamic.

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Afghanistan: RSF Calls for Continued Support for Media in Exile

  • RSF

Afghan media in exile remain economically fragile, even though they are a widely followed source of information, according to a report by the think tank for media professionals, The Fix, and the support fund for journalism in exile, JX Fund, created in 2022 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and its partners.

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Inside the Virginia Newsroom of Amu TV

  • The Atlantic
  • Cora Engelbrecht

How he exiled Afghans of Amu TV are holding the Taliban to account — from 7,000 miles away. Even though it operates abroad—or perhaps because it operates abroad—Amu TV is one of the most effective chroniclers of life under Taliban rule. The Atlantic reporter Cora Engelbrecht paid a visit to their newsroom.

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“Like Swimming in a Swamp”

  • IWPR
  • Mohammad Munir Mehraban

It is estimated that, nearly 2000 journalists have left Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in 2021. Many sought asylum in Europe and North America, while others settled in Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries. Despite severe challenges Afghan reporters in exile remain committed to keeping the flow of independent news from their homeland alive.

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Fact-Checking From Exile

  • JX Fund

When the Taliban took power three years ago, the previously thriving Afghan media landscape collapsed. Many journalists were forced to leave the country and now work remotely. Others have stayed and continue their work despite all dangers. How do editorial teams in exile deal with the challenge of accessing sources on the ground?

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Forced to Flee: Increasing Numbers of Journalists in Exile

  • Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
  • Lucy Westcott

Threats, repression, conflict, and unrest: across the world, these and other factors are pushing journalists into exile in record numbers. In a striking development, exiled or soon-to-be exiled journalists now make up more than half of the people CPJ assists. While exile is a global issue, three countries — Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan — stand out as places from which journalists flee only to face further insecurity. Below, find case studies on each country.

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Belarusian Journalist In Exile Calls Out State Abuses

  • Deutsche Welle
  • Vicky Hristova | Axel Rowohlt

Reporters Without Borders has ranked Belarus as the worst country for press freedom in Europe. Maria Savushkina, a Belarusian journalist currently living in Berlin, reaches tens of thousands of people back home with her political satire.

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Please Glorify the Government

  • Tagesspiegel
  • Alisher Shahir

The Taliban claim that there is freedom of the press in the country. Even Western Youtubers are allowed to come – if they report positively and adhere to strict conditions.

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