The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has rejected a report by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) mentioning Afghanistan is among the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists.

According to the report, IEA has been persecuting independent media since retaking power in August 2021, and it jailed 21 journalists in 2023 and is currently holding three.

Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, however, says that the situation has improved and only one journalist is in prison. According to officials in the committee, lack of access to information is still one of the serious problems of journalists.

“We have problems in the area of lack of a mass media law. We have problem in access to information because there has been a big change and naturally it has its own problems. There are problems regarding arrests without coordination with the Ministry of Information and Culture, but in the last two years, we had only one martyr and 13 wounded,” said Abdul Qadim Wiar, head of the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee.

Rejecting the Reporters Without Borders report, the Islamic Emirate said that there is currently no threat to journalists.

“Unfortunately, the institutions that have been established in the name of defending journalists and others in the West, they have their own agenda to spread propaganda against countries, and they address and analyze issues from the same point of view. No journalist is threatened in Afghanistan. No journalist has been harmed in Afghanistan in the past year. Of course, there have been detention and legal actions that too were limited and have been resolved, and the majority of them were not related to media work, but had a legal or criminal nature,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman of IEA.

“Unfortunately, these institutions are silent about Israel which in one month killed and directly targeted 20 to 30 journalists,” he said.