The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Taliban to immediately release Afghan journalist Shakeeb Ahmad Nazari, who was arrested by Taliban intelligence agents and religious enforcers in Kabul on July 23.
In a statement issued Tuesday, August 26, CPJ confirmed that Nazari, a freelance journalist with past collaborations with Japan’s Nippon TV and other international outlets, was initially held for a week by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue before being transferred to an intelligence prison in Kabul.
According to two journalists who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, the Taliban’s enforcers view those working with foreign media as “killable.” The journalist’s arrest became public after a Taliban-affiliated account on X (formerly Twitter) posted a video of Nazari on August 21. The post was later deleted for unknown reasons.
In the video, Nazari is seen stating that he collaborated with Nippon TV and had shared content about women’s rights activists critical of Taliban morality forces in a WhatsApp group linked to the Japanese outlet.
Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia Program Director, condemned the arrest, saying: “The arbitrary detention of Shakeeb Ahmad Nazari is another example of the Taliban’s brutal repression of the press. Authorities must release him immediately and stop coercing journalists into making forced confessions.” She described the video as evidence of the Taliban’s “horrific treatment of media workers.”
Nazari had previously stated on his X account that he also contributed to CNN and the Daily Mail. His detention adds to mounting concerns over the Taliban’s escalating crackdown on independent journalism and its growing hostility toward international media partnerships.
