New York, September 30, 2026—Taliban authorities should immediately permit the independent
Afghan Voice Agency
(AVA) to reopen its Kabul office, release reporter Zamin Ali Chavoshi and five other detained media workers, and halt their escalating campaign against news organizations serving Afghanistan’s persecuted Shiite Hazara community, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
On September 24, Taliban security personnel raided the AVA office, verbally abused an employee who was present, seized equipment and documents, sealed the premises, and detained the agency’s security manager, according to the
Afghanistan Journalists Center
, an exiled watchdog group, and an Afghan journalist familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Two days later, Taliban officials contacted several current and former journalists, columnists, and writers associated with AVA, some of whom also work with its sister organization, the Tebyan Social and Cultural Centre
,
and instructed them by phone to report to the ministry, the journalist told CPJ. Five were detained after appearing there, including staff reporter Chavoshi. The journalist did not identify the other four detainees, who were described as current or former writers who had contributed to the agency on a freelance basis.
“The closure of the Afghan Voice Agency and the detention of journalist Zamin Ali Chavoshi, the agency’s security manager, and four other writers reflect an increasingly systematic effort by the Taliban to silence what remains of media serving Afghanistan’s Hazara and Shiite communities,” said CPJ’s Afghanistan and Pakistan representative Waliullah Rahmani. “This crackdown appears to mark a further deterioration in Afghanistan’s media environment, with authorities increasingly moving against outlets linked to particular ethnic and religious communities, including organizations that have not openly challenged Taliban policies. Taliban authorities
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