In Afghanistan, new Taliban tactic to humiliate journalists: forced “confessions” broadcast online

Mahdi Ansary's case is not an isolated one. It illustrates a new trendin the ruthless repression of journalists in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. A video of his forced confession was posted on the Facebook page Voice of the Hindu Kush, affiliated with the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), the Taliban intelligence agency, on 2 October 2025. According to the Facebook page, Mahdi Ansary was arrested for producing "toxic propaganda" hostile towards the regime and accused of collaborating with exiled Afghan media outlets. The AFKA Newsreporter disappeared on 5 October 2024 after leaving his office in Kabul, the capital. His family confirmed shortly afterwards that he had been arrested by GDI agents. On 1 January 2025, while detained at the GDI centre Directorate 40 in Kabul, he was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for producing "propaganda against the Islamic Emirate." He was then transferred to Bagram prison, about 60 kilometres north of Kabul.

Like Mahdi Ansary, the director of Tawana News Agency, Abuzar Sarem Sarepuli- who also heads Afghanistan's Journalists Organizations and Media Federation - and a correspondent for NTV Japan, Shakib Nazari,were also forced to "confess" to alleged crimes in videos posted on social media on 30 Julyand 21 August respectively. They were arrested during a GDI raid on 24 July 2025, along with Mohammad Bashir Hatef, who is interim director of the Afghanistan Journalists Organizations and Media Federation.

All three remain in Taliban jails, along with at least three other journalists, including freelance journalist Hamid Farhadi, who was sentencedto two years in prison in October 2024 for producing "propaganda against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan." He had been arrested the previous month for collaborating with an exiled media outlet. Two other journalists have been imprisoned since the beginning of the year.

Compounding the relentless restrictions on press freedom, the country was also almost completely cut off from the world between 29 September and 1 October 2025, when the supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, ordered fibre optic internet to be blocked in the name of fighting "vice." The country was deprived of internet and mobile phone services.

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the media landscape has been stifled by restrictionson press freedom, and at least 165 journalists have been arrested. Afghanistan ranks 175th out of 180 countries and territories in the2025 RSF World Press Freedom Index.