Taliban Release Jawid Niazi After Two Months in Detention

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The Afghanistan Media Support Organisation, AMSO, has announced that Jawid Niazi, head of Paygard News Agency, has been released from a Taliban prison after nearly two months in detention.

The organisation said the release of one journalist is not enough to guarantee media freedom, and the Taliban must release all detained journalists and media workers without conditions.

In a statement on Tuesday (7 July), AMSO welcomed the release of Jawid Niazi, but described his arrest and imprisonment as “a clear violation of human rights and the principles of media freedom”.

According to the organisation, Jawid Niazi’s colleagues confirmed that he was released on Monday (6 July) from Directorate 40 of the Taliban’s intelligence agency and has rejoined his family in Kabul.

Jawid Niazi was arrested on 6 May this year after being summoned to the Taliban’s intelligence office. The Taliban had not clearly announced the exact reason for his arrest.

AMSO said that Mansoor Niazi, journalist and presenter of political programmes at TOLOnews, and Imran Danish, journalist and head of the political department at the network, remain in Taliban detention.

The Afghanistan Media Support Organisation called on the Taliban to release all detained journalists and media workers and to respect their basic rights, including access to a defence lawyer, a fair trial and job security.

The organisation also called on the Taliban to refrain from threats, intimidation, pressure and extracting forced confessions from journalists. AMSO said no journalist should be arrested, tried or imprisoned for carrying out their professional duties.

This comes as the Taliban have imposed wide-ranging restrictions on the media over nearly the past five years. These restrictions have led to the closure of dozens of media outlets, the migration of journalists and a sharp decline in freedom of expression in Afghanistan.