In four years, the Taliban have annihilated Afghanistan’s independent media sector and supplanted it with their own propaganda empire and sophisticated digital bots that flood social media with pro-Taliban content.

CPJ interviewed 10 Afghan journalists, inside and outside the country, who said that  independent media, which used to reach millions of people, have largely been banned,suspended, or shuttered while key outlets have been taken over by the Taliban. None would publish their names, citing fear of reprisals.

The Taliban now run about 15 major television and radio stations, newspapers, and digital platforms, including on YouTube, X, and Telegram — tightly aligned with their radical Islamist ideology.

“The ruling authority enforces a monolithic media policy, rejecting any news, narrative, or voice that deviates from what they deem the truth. Even personal opinions expressed on platforms like Facebook are treated as propaganda and punishedaccordingly,” Ahmad Quraishi, director of the exiled Afghanistan Journalists Center, told CPJ.

Exiled journalists offer one of the last remaining sources of independent information broadcast into Afghanistan. But even they face safety concerns and hardships, as well as job losses and potential forced return due to the U.S. funding cuts to the Congress-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) outlets.

Turning fearful journalists into spies

As Afghanistan marks the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s August 15, 2021, takeover, most journalists who spoke with CPJ said they were fearful, and either jobless or heavily censored. Several described the relentless surveillance, control, andintimidation as living under a “media police state.”

“Taliban intelligence agents have launched a policing system where every journalist is expected to spy on others,” a media executive who led a TV station in eastern Afghanistan told CPJ.

“They demand complete personal information on all staff: names, fathers’ names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, WhatsApp numbers … We must report everything.”

Intelligence agents monitor and detain reporters over their social media content, while the morality police arrest those who violate their stringent interpretation of Sharia law, which includes a ban on music, soap operas, and programs co-hosted by male and female presenters.

Two media owners from northern and eastern Afghanistan told CPJ that they had been subjected to invasive revenue audits and administrative delays because they were perceived as insufficiently compliant.

“Taliban agents reach out to journalists privately, pressuring them to spy on their colleagues or push specific narratives,” one of the owners said. “If someone refuses, they call the media manager and demand the journalist be fired. We comply, or we face licensing issues from the Ministry of Information and Culture or financial penalties from the Ministry of Finance.”

In May, a spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said it had held over 1,000 meetings with the media over the last year to “coordinate in promoting Islamic Sharia values” — a term understood locally to mean morality police enforcement meetings.

Two female journalists from western Afghanistan said they were each summoned over 10 times in the past two years.

 “Once they interrogated me for three hours in the office of the Directorate of Virtue and Vice, asking why I worked instead of staying home,” one woman told CPJ, referring to the ministry’s provincial office.

“They said that if I were found working with exiled media, it would be wajib al-qatl [permissible to kill me]. One official said, ‘We forgive you this time, you thank God for this. But under Sharia, we could bring any calamity upon you.’ Another time, they said they could detain me for a week just to extract a confession, and no one would even know.”

Inside the Taliban’s media empire

Three active, independent Kabul-based journalists explained the Taliban’s new media landscape to CPJ:

➨ At its heart is Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), which broadcasts in the country’s two official languages: Pashto — preferred by the Taliban — and Dari — a Persian dialect and Afghanistan’s most widely spoken language. RTA also has English andArabic sites. The Taliban rebranded the radio division as the “Voice of Sharia Radio.”  

With over 500 staff nationwide and a budget of about 600 million Afghanis (US$8.8 million), RTA reports often promote Taliban achievements, such as supportingrefugees and diplomacy.

➨ Bakhtar News Agency, founded in 1939, employs around 60 staff in Kabul and four reporters in each of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Run by the information ministry, it is the Taliban’s official news source and publishes in eight languages, including Mandarinand Turkish.

➨ The information ministry also runs several daily newspapers, including Dari-language Anis, Pashto-language Hewad, and English-language The Kabul Times in print and online. These newspapers were founded several decades ago.

The three journalists said security agencies operate three radio stations:

➨ Hurriyat Radio has a website, YouTube channel, and local radio stations that areexpanding across the provinces, broadcasting in multiple languages, with 26 Kabul staff plus provincial correspondents.

Reporting focuses on regional rivalries and Taliban military successes, particularly against the Afghan-based Islamic State-Khorasan, which continues to kill civilians and Taliban leaders.

Hurriyat Radio was launched in 2022 by the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) — the Taliban’s notorious intelligence agency behind a series of media crackdowns — and is managed by the agency’s directorate of media and publications.

➨ Radio Omid, started in 2023 by the defense ministry, employs 45 staff in Kabul and provincial reporters, and reports on the ministry’s achievements. The radio station is managed by the office of spokesperson of the defense ministry.

➨ Radio Police, relaunched in 2021 by the interior ministry, broadcasts news about police activities across key provinces like Kabul and southern Kandahar.

The Taliban has four news sites, at least three of which are run by the intelligence agency:

➨ The flagship project is the multi-lingual Al Mirsad news site, launched in 2023 to challenge IS-K narratives. It downplays the group’s presence in Afghanistan while reporting Taliban successes, using multiple social media channels, including YouTube.

It is funded and operated by the GDI’s directorate of media and publications and its senior managers are linked to the interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.

➨ YouTube-based Maihan discredits the Taliban’s opponents, with 12 staff, led by Jawad Sargar, former deputy director of the GDI’s directorate of media and publication.

When contacted via messaging app, Sargar asked CPJ to stop contacting him, adding, “These matters are not related to you.”

➨ YouTube-based Yad, chronicles Taliban history and criticizes its rivals. It is also GDI funded, run, and operated.

➨ The multi-lingual Alemarah news site, active before 2021, is the Taliban’s official outlet, run by Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.

Disinformation campaign

Intelligence officials have four offices from which they direct disinformation campaigns. Dozens of creators are paid 6,000 to 10,000 Afghanis (US$88 to 146) a month to run fake social media accounts that troll critics, smear activists, and simulate grassroots support, two Afghan journalists told CPJ.

The project is led by senior GDI figures like deputy director of media and publication, Jabir Nomani, former GDI spokespeople Jawad Amin and Sargar – who runs Maihan – and Kabul-based political analyst Fazlur Rahman Orya, the journalists said.

Orya, who is also director of the Sahar Discourse Center, which advises the Taliban on policy, denied that he was involved in disinformation, telling CPJ via messaging app, “You make a big mistake about me.”

Nomani did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment via messaging app.

Qais Alamdar, exiled founder of the open source investigative platform IntelFocus, hasdocumented the activities of these bots, which often post near-identical tweets within minutes of each other to bolster the government’s legitimacy or prevent internet users finding other news, such as an attack on the Taliban.

“Only someone with consistent access to electricity, internet, and time could maintain that kind of operation in Afghanistan,” he told CPJ.

Traffic accidents are only news allowed

As a result of these repressive measures, many media outlets have shut down or have been banned entirely.

In the northeastern Panjshir Valley, once the heart of resistance to the Taliban, no media outlets remain active, Ahmad Hanayesh, who used to own two radio stations in the province, told CPJ from exile.

Four journalists from Herat, Nangarhar, Faryab, and Bamiyan told CPJ that aside from education and health stories, the only serious news they were permitted to cover was traffic accidents. Even crime reporting was banned.

GDI’s media and publications director Khalil Hamraz and Taliban spokesperson Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment via messaging app.

Waliullah Rahmani is an Asia researcher at CPJ. From 2016 to the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, he was founder and director of Khabarnama Media, one of the first digital media organisations in Afghanistan.

This piece has been republished with permission from CPJ, a nonprofit that promotes press freedom worldwide.