Afghanistan

Afghanistan has one of the most restricted media environments in the world. Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, 43% of media outlets have disappeared and more than two-thirds of the approximately 12,000 journalists working in 2021 have left the profession. Afghanistan ranked 175th of 180 in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index with a score of 19.51, its legal indicator at 178th and security indicator at 177th; before the takeover it ranked 122nd.

Media operate under a combination of open-ended laws and written and oral directives, without effective independent legal safeguards. The eleven journalism rules of 2021 prohibit material considered contrary to Islam, insulting to national figures or in violation of privacy, without defining those categories. The Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice of August 2024 has been used to restrict images of living beings and women’s voices; by May 2026 the Afghanistan Journalists Center reported the images prohibition officially enforced in 25 of 34 provinces. The Ministry of Justice announced the repeal of the 2015 press law in 2024, though the former framework’s status remains uncertain. Human Rights Watch reported in October 2025 that the intelligence service monitors output and authorities review reports before publication.

AFJC documented at least 205 press-freedom violations in 2025, including 34 arrests, two deaths and three injuries. Provincial fibre-optic shutdowns from mid-September 2025 were followed by a nationwide internet and mobile blackout of roughly 48 hours, and a nationwide smartphone ban for civilian and military officials took effect on 16 June 2026. Working women journalists fell from 2,833 before the takeover to 747 in 2025; women are prohibited from appearing on camera in public media and face restrictions on voices, movement and access to information that have excluded most from the profession.

The 2026 dataset maps three principal state-media organisations, all State-Controlled (SC) and under the Ministry of Information and Culture:

• Radio Television Afghanistan — national broadcaster. Director General Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi is a former Taliban spokesperson appointed directly by the leadership; in many cases RTA footage is distributed to other media as officially approved visual material.
• Directorate of State Newspapers — ministry unit publishing Anis, Hewad, The Kabul Times and Shariat.
• Bakhtar News Agency — state news service; director Mawlavi Ehsanullah Hassan appointed by prime-ministerial decree, June 2026.

No functioning independent governing board, protected appointment system or statutory editorial firewall was identified for any of the three. Together they form the administration’s central broadcasting, print and news-agency infrastructure in a sector where independent alternatives have sharply contracted. The administration also operates further platforms through the intelligence service and defence and interior bodies (CPJ identified about 15 major administration-run outlets in 2025), which are not separately included in the current mapping.

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