Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned that the Taliban has established an extensive system of surveillance, intimidation and repression to silence Afghanistan’s media.
The organisation said the Taliban’s intelligence agency had created a feared unit known as 015 to target journalists.
According to RSF, the Taliban’s intelligence agency established the unit five years ago to arrest and torture journalists, impose censorship and shut down media outlets.
In a report published on Wednesday, 4 November, Reporters Without Borders said the Taliban had pursued a strategy of media repression and censorship, arbitrary convictions of journalists and the closure of critical media outlets over the five years since returning to power.
The organisation stressed that the Taliban administration regarded journalists as enemies of the government simply for carrying out their professional duties.
According to the report, Unit 015 of the Taliban’s intelligence agency is responsible for conducting online propaganda campaigns and managing media activities. Several Afghan journalists told RSF that officers from the unit had arbitrarily arrested, threatened, interrogated and tortured them.
The report said Unit 015, which is deeply feared by Afghan journalists, was established within the Taliban’s intelligence agency after the group’s return to power in August 2021.
The unit has officers stationed in Kabul and other provinces. They monitor Afghan media content and take action against material they consider problematic.
According to the report, officers summon and threaten journalists whose reporting is considered critical of the Taliban. The unit’s operational personnel, working alongside officials from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, raid media offices, arrest individuals and confiscate media equipment.
Reporters Without Borders stated that these measures formed part of a broader strategy to suppress journalism entirely and reinforce the position of Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada as an enemy of press freedom.
The report also included accounts from several journalists who described their experiences of detention and torture by Taliban intelligence officers.
Farhad, a journalist whose account was published under a pseudonym for security reasons, said Taliban officers had placed a black bag over his head after arresting him and transferred him to an intelligence facility in Kabul.
The officers accused him of espionage and searched his phone and computer. He was also accused of spreading propaganda against the Taliban administration because of his reporting on people’s everyday lives.
Farhad said he had been transferred to Unit 015 several days after his arrest and had spent two weeks in a small solitary confinement cell.
According to him, different officers subjected him to torture and interrogation around the clock, attempting to force him to make statements against other journalists.
He said officers had beaten him severely on his back and feet and had also used a stun gun against him. He added that he continued to suffer from the effects of the torture.
Farhad is one of 77 journalists reportedly arrested and imprisoned since 2021 in what RSF describes as a campaign of detentions intended to intimidate media workers.
Their periods of detention reportedly ranged from one week to two years.
The report said the Taliban had imposed extensive censorship on the media since returning to power.
Ahmad, another journalist identified by a pseudonym who previously worked for a private television station, said the restrictions had begun with bans on certain programmes and the silencing of female journalists.
According to him, shortly after the Taliban returned to power, his media organisation signed an undertaking with the Ministry of Information and Culture not to broadcast programmes featuring both women and men or interview individuals who opposed the Taliban.
Ahmad said the threats had gradually intensified, and he had been repeatedly summoned to Unit 015 after publishing reports that contradicted the Taliban’s preferred narrative.
He said professional journalism was effectively regarded as opposition to the Taliban.
The journalist was eventually forced to leave Afghanistan.
Abdullah, another journalist now living outside Afghanistan, said the Taliban wanted to turn media outlets into propaganda platforms serving the administration and broadcasting only content approved by the authorities.
According to Abdullah, officers repeatedly threatened him when he was summoned to Unit 015.
He said officers had instructed him not to report on women’s rights, security incidents or poverty. Instead, they had ordered him to invite individuals who supported the Taliban rather than those considered opposed to national interests.
Reporters Without Borders said it had obtained more than 20 nationwide directives and a growing number of provincial orders aimed at eliminating press freedom.
The organisation also examined audio messages in which members of Unit 015 threatened journalists.
In the recordings, officers instructed journalists not to provide airtime to individuals they considered provocative or who questioned the Taliban administration’s policies.
They also ordered media outlets to invite Taliban-approved analysts from a list provided by the authorities. One journalist said the list contained no more than 50 names.
In one of the messages, an officer said cooperation between the authorities and journalists had to be mutual.
He then instructed journalists to produce reports and interviews on topics selected by the Taliban.
According to RSF, threats against journalists continue even after they leave Afghanistan.
In one message, a journalist was warned that the Taliban would find him regardless of where he went or attempted to hide.
Torture & Mock Executions
In another section of the report, Ahmad, whose identity was concealed for security reasons, described torture and mistreatment while in Taliban intelligence custody.
He said he had been forcibly taken to Unit 015 one day and, like other detainees, had been accused of espionage during interrogation.
He added that officers had tortured him and beaten him so severely that he had lost consciousness.
The report said Unit 015 does not operate a separate prison and that most detainees are eventually transferred to Directorates 40 or 90 of the Taliban’s intelligence agency.
Ahmad said he had been allowed to see his family only twice during his prolonged detention.
He also described being subjected to a mock execution.
He said officers had taken him to a hill at two in the morning, placed a gun against his temple and told him they had killed several people like him at the same location.
The journalist was eventually tried in a Taliban court and sentenced to prison on charges of propaganda against the regime.
Several months later, he was transferred to Bagram prison.
Ahmad said his hands and feet had remained tied even when he went to the toilet, and that officers had also punished him with cold water.
He left Afghanistan after being released from prison.
However, Hamdullah Fitrat told Reporters Without Borders that the relevant departments, including Unit 015 of the intelligence agency, operated within the framework of the law. He denied that anyone was subjected to arbitrary treatment or detention.
Taliban’s Anonymous Social Media Accounts
The report said the Taliban’s efforts to control information extended beyond the repression of journalists to the online environment.
According to information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, Unit 015 has a dedicated department responsible for monitoring social media.
Officers document content they consider problematic in reports.
The organisation said one section of Unit 015 was responsible for propaganda, online disinformation campaigns and influencing public opinion.
Unit 015 also operates a studio where videos of detainees’ forced confessions are recorded.
Previously, on 10 September, Afghanistan International published documents showing that the Taliban’s intelligence agency had allocated a total of 70.7 million Afghanis for propaganda campaigns against its opponents.
According to the documents, various elements of the programme are implemented through 1,500 anonymous social media accounts, Taliban-affiliated media outlets and several private television stations.
Official letters from the Taliban’s intelligence agency indicate that the programme was developed in response to increased military and ideological activities by resistance fronts and other critics.
The documents refer to the programme as the Counter-Propaganda and Intelligence Measures Plan.
British and Pakistani officials have described the presence of militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in Afghanistan as a serious regional threat. The position was announced at bilateral counter-terrorism talks in Islamabad on Wednesday, 4 November.
According to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, the annual meeting was co-chaired by Fareha Bugti, Pakistan’s Director-General for Counter-Terrorism, and Thomas Barry, Director of National Security at the UK Foreign Office.
The two countries said the activities of transnational terrorist networks operating from Afghanistan posed a threat to regional security.
They described the presence of militant groups, particularly the TTP, as a major obstacle to stability and stressed the need for a secure Afghanistan.
The UK condemned recent deadly attacks in Pakistan that Islamabad said had originated from Afghan territory and reaffirmed its support for Pakistan’s efforts to combat terrorism.
The two sides also agreed to strengthen intelligence-sharing and focus on preventing extremist groups from exploiting social media platforms and emerging technologies.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday, 4 November, that resolving Afghanistan-related issues required regional coordination.
Speaking at the Eurasian Security Conference in Minsk, Lavrov stressed the importance of relying on Eurasian mechanisms and the Moscow Format. He said responsibility for managing the Afghanistan issue should be given to neighbouring and regional countries, arguing that they had the greatest motivation and capacity to address security challenges and establish lasting stability.
Russia has repeatedly called for Afghanistan-related affairs to be handled by countries in the region.
The meetings come amid repeated accusations by Islamabad that the Afghan Taliban administration is harbouring TTP commanders and fighters and allowing them to establish operational bases in Afghanistan. Pakistan has also repeatedly carried out airstrikes against Taliban positions in different parts of Afghanistan.
The Taliban administration, however, has denied the presence or activities of the TTP on Afghan territory. It has described insecurity and armed attacks in Pakistan as an internal matter, insisting that it does not allow any group to use Afghan soil to threaten neighbouring countries.
The results of the US midterm elections, particularly Abdul El-Sayed’s historic victory in Michigan, have prompted reactions from several political figures, including prominent Afghans.
Salahuddin Rabbani, leader of Afghanistan’s Jamiat-e Islami party, welcomed the victory, describing it as a symbol of honesty and steadfastness.
Abdul El-Sayed defeated his Republican opponent in Michigan’s US Senate election on Wednesday, becoming the first Muslim senator in American history.
Reacting to the victory, Rabbani shared a post on X referring to El-Sayed’s remarks about remaining consistent in his political positions.
The post quoted the newly elected senator as saying that he expresses the same beliefs in all circumstances and before any audience, remaining steadfast in his convictions.
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Afghanistan’s former national security adviser, also commented on the US election results, saying they would bring no significant change for Asian and African countries or oppressed peoples around the world.
Referring to the continued economic and political dominance of Western powers, Spanta stressed that Afghanistan must stop relying on others to achieve freedom and instead depend on the struggle and efforts of its own people.
He described dependence on others as a source of “humiliation and defeat” and emphasised the role of Afghan women and “men fighting for Afghanistan” in securing freedom.
Nasir Ahmad Andisha, Afghanistan’s ambassador in Geneva, also reacted to El-Sayed’s victory by sharing an excerpt from his victory speech and urging anti-Taliban forces to take action towards building consensus and bringing about change in Afghanistan rather than waiting for external support.
Referring to the senator’s statement that “tonight, we can turn that inshallah into alhamdulillah”, Andisha wrote that such change could not be achieved by waiting for “magic rescue”. Instead, it required tolerance, open-mindedness and a willingness to set aside personal interests to build genuine consensus.
Afghanistan’s ambassador in Geneva added that faith without action was meaningless. Recalling the saying, “Trust in God, but tie your camel’s knee”, he stressed that faith provides direction, while action and responsibility produce results.
Andisha also called for an end to divisions among Taliban opponents.
He wrote that if the objective was to remove the curse of Taliban rule from Afghanistan, Afghans themselves must shoulder the primary responsibility rather than relying on foreign supporters.
A US federal court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to deport dozens of Afghan asylum seekers to Afghanistan.
Under the court order, the US government is prohibited from returning any Afghan nationals to Afghanistan this week.
AfghanEvac told Afghanistan International that pressure from US military veterans, Afghan rights advocates, members of Congress and citizens across the United States had contributed to the postponement of the deportation flight.
The organisation added that the federal court’s ruling had created another obstacle to the planned deportations.
In recent days, the Trump administration has targeted more than 150 Afghan nationals for mass deportation. The plan involved flying them to Pakistan before transferring them overland to Afghanistan.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that, according to court documents and statements from US officials, the deportation flight had been scheduled to depart from Alexandria, Louisiana, in mid-November.
However, a federal court temporarily halted the plan on Tuesday, 3 November. The order remains in effect until Sunday and does not constitute a permanent suspension of the deportation process.
US law prohibits deporting individuals to countries where they are likely to face persecution or torture. However, it remains unclear whether any of the Afghans affected by the plan have individual legal protections against removal.
According to court documents and statements from a US official, those facing deportation include at least one woman, a gay man and several relatives of individuals who worked with the US military.
In recent days, US federal judges have issued separate rulings blocking deportations in individual cases.
On Monday, a judge postponed the deportation of a man whose wife had worked with the US military for 14 days. On Tuesday, another judge ordered the immediate release of a gay Afghan man.
Both men said their lives would be at risk if they were returned to Afghanistan.
The Afghan woman facing deportation was detained at the southern US border in 2025 after entering the country illegally. According to court documents and statements from her lawyer, she is a Christian and previously worked as a journalist at a radio station in Afghanistan.
Her lawyers told the court that her religious identity and journalism background placed her at risk of persecution by the Taliban.
Two of her former colleagues at the radio station were killed by unidentified gunmen in 2019.
Lawyers representing some of the Afghans affected by the plan argue that transferring them to Pakistan constitutes deportation to a third country, particularly given the ongoing armed conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
They maintain that the conflict between the two countries, together with Afghanistan’s human rights situation, exposes the asylum seekers to the risk of torture and persecution and violates the United States’ international obligations.
In its defence before the court, the Trump administration argued that transferring Afghans to Pakistan before returning them to Afghanistan does not constitute third-country deportation because Pakistan would serve only as a transit route to their country of origin.
According to a memorandum issued by the US Department of Homeland Security in 2025, foreign governments must provide credible diplomatic assurances that asylum seekers deported from the United States to third countries will not face persecution or torture before accepting them.
Lawyers for the detained Afghans say there is no evidence that such assurances have been provided in their clients’ cases.
Responding to the deportation plan, Taliban officials expressed concern on social media about transferring Afghan nationals to Pakistan and proposed arrangements for their direct return to Afghanistan.
Over the past two years, the Trump administration has tightened immigration restrictions affecting Afghans who worked with US forces, deported some to African countries and pressured others staying at a former US military base in Qatar to return voluntarily to Afghanistan.
Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, warned that implementing the plan to transfer Afghans through Pakistan could establish a precedent for future deportations.
He said that once the arrangement had been successfully implemented, it would become easier to deport others through the same route.
VanDiver also referred to more than 1,000 Afghan nationals with connections to US forces who have been awaiting resettlement for years in Qatar, including many women and children.
The Afghan woman included in the planned deportation flight had personally applied for asylum after entering the United States in 2025.
In an emergency application to the court, her lawyer warned that deportation would expose her to a serious risk of persecution, torture and death.
The woman has requested anonymity because of security concerns.
Another Afghan national facing deportation, identified only as Salehi, entered the United States illegally in 2024.
In his asylum application, Salehi said he had worked with a resistance front opposing the Taliban and had been detained and tortured by the group.
An immigration judge rejected his asylum application, and he is now preparing an appeal to prevent his deportation.
Salehi has also requested that only his surname be published because of concerns for his safety.
A Taliban official in Kabul told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the group's representatives had been invited to attend an upcoming UN climate summit as observers for the second time. The summit is scheduled to begin next week in Antalya, Türkiye.
Two years ago, Taliban officials attended the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the first time since returning to power in 2021.
Rohullah Amin, head of the climate change department at Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency, confirmed to the Associated Press that a Taliban official planned to attend the summit.
A Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government regulations, also said the Taliban would attend the conference as observers.
The United Nations has not allowed the Taliban to take Afghanistan's seat at the UN General Assembly. The Taliban government also remains unrecognised by most UN member states.
The group's severe restrictions on women's education and freedom of movement are among the reasons for the lack of international recognition.
Since the Baku summit, the governing bodies of UN climate conferences have postponed decisions on Afghanistan's representation, effectively leaving Kabul largely excluded from negotiations.
Observer countries can attend climate meetings and discussions but do not participate in formal negotiations over the conferences' policies and objectives.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Afghanistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change worldwide.
The country faces overlapping crises of drought, water shortages, extreme heat and unpredictable flooding, which have devastated livelihoods and caused widespread displacement.
A large proportion of Afghanistan's population depends on agriculture, and successive droughts have severely reduced food production.
According to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 1.6 million people across Afghanistan were forced to leave their homes because of the effects of climate change between March and December 2025.
The Taliban argues that the Afghan people should be represented at climate conferences and have access to funding to address the effects of climate change.
However, critics of the Taliban maintain that the international community should not recognise the group's government.
UNICEF confirmed to Afghanistan International that funding shortages have forced it to reduce staff worldwide, including in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, several Afghan women said the agency's Kabul office had not renewed their employment contracts.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) told Afghanistan International on Tuesday, 3 November, that a review of employment records indicated the women were not directly employed by UNICEF and had probably been hired by partner organisations or contractors.
However, the women protesting the decision said nine of them had been employed through the HPL organisation, while at least four were directly employed by UNICEF.
UNICEF said it was facing challenging funding conditions in implementing its programmes worldwide. Its Afghanistan office confirmed that budget shortages had affected the continued employment of both male and female staff.
The UN children's agency stressed that despite funding reductions, it was working to maintain the delivery of services to Afghan children. It also reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining gender diversity among its workforce in accordance with UN obligations.
A group of Afghan women claimed that UNICEF had not renewed their contracts because of the ban on women working in UN offices. The women said there were 13 of them, most of whom had worked as kindergarten teachers, while others held reception and cleaning positions at UNICEF's main office in Pul-e Charkhi, Kabul.
In a letter to Afghanistan International, the women wrote that following the ban on women working in UN offices, they had been prevented from reporting to work for approximately a year but had continued to receive their salaries.
They claimed UNICEF had recently informed them that, because of the restrictions on women working in UN offices, their services were no longer needed.
The women said they had worked at UNICEF's main office in Pul-e Charkhi, Kabul, with some claiming to have been employed there for around 10 years.
According to the information provided, 10 of the women worked as kindergarten teachers, while four others held positions in reception, cleaning and supervision.
In September last year, Taliban officials, acting on orders from their leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, prevented Afghan women from entering UN offices. Since then, Afghan women have not been allowed to work in UN offices in Afghanistan.
In mid-April, the United Nations announced that 3,300 male and female employees had been confined to their homes as a result of Taliban restrictions.
UN officials have repeatedly emphasised that women's participation is essential for delivering life-saving assistance to millions of people in need.
The ban on women working in UN offices has also prompted criticism from Afghan activists. Several women's rights activists abroad have accused the United Nations of normalising the Taliban's gender discrimination.
Speaking at the UN Security Council on 27 October, human rights activist Zubaida Akbar questioned how much longer Afghan women must wait and what further evidence of Taliban violations of their rights they must provide before the international community takes action.
Akbar accused the United Nations of applying a selective approach to human rights and women's rights. She added that the organisation avoids including female representatives in meetings with the Taliban in order to accommodate the group's demands.