Slayings of journalists on rise in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Malala Maiwand sat on a television studio couch, pen and notebook in hand, a dark red headscarf framing her face. She was hosting a morning talk show in the city of Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan. The topic was rising insecurity in the region, and her guest was a police spokesman.

A recent killing had taken place in broad daylight and in plain sight of police, but the suspect had escaped. “What is your answer to this?” she asked the man.

Though just 26, Maiwand was known for holding officials accountable and her show on Enikass TV had become one of the most popular in the eastern part of the country.

But on Dec. 10, just a few weeks after the interview aired, an unknown gunman shot her dead, along with her driver, as she drove to work in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangahar province.

The brazen daytime assassination was one of the latest in a string of targeted attacks on journalists in Afghanistan. The spate of killings has highlighted the danger they face as they report on surging violence and tense peace talks between Afghan and Taliban representatives in Qatar that began in September.

Since January, 11 Afghan journalists and media workers have been killed, making this one of the deadliest years for the country’s rapidly growing domestic media corps since the end of Taliban rule in 2001. Recently the pace has increased, with five journalists killed in the past two months.

Last week, Rahmatullah Nikzad, a freelance photographer, was shot dead outside his home in the city of Ghazni. In November, Elyas Dayee, a journalist who worked for Radio Azadi, and Yama Siavash, a former ToloNews anchor, were killed in separate magnetic bomb explosions. Fardin Amini, an anchor for Ariana News TV, died a day after Maiwand’s death.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killings of Siavash and Maiwand. Police say Amini committed suicide, but his family and friends insist he was murdered. The Taliban denied involvement in the killing of Nikzad and condemned the attack on the journalist.

More than a dozen Afghan journalists and media activists interviewed for this story said they feel less safe than ever and fear such attacks will increase as security continues to deteriorate.

Maiwand was one the few women who dared to appear openly as a television journalist in Nangahar, a deeply conservative province where few women work outside their homes. Most who work in journalism prefer to take off-camera jobs rather than risk being seen on screen. When Enikass began operating about three years ago, Maiwand’s public role defied social norms.

The assassinations have shaken the country and exposed the fragility of hard-won media freedom in Afghanistan.

The killings come at a time when the media community faces an uncertain future, even if the government and Taliban reach a peace deal.

Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the country’s Interior Ministry, said the Taliban has been behind most targeted assassinations of journalists there since 2001. The Taliban rejects the accusation.

“The killing of journalists and media workers is not among our targets,” Zabiullah Mujahid, the group’s spokesman, said in a WhatsApp message to The Washington Post.

The Taliban imposed harsh restrictions on media during its five-year rule in the late 1990s. It banned television and took over state-owned radio and newspapers to use them as propaganda platforms. But the group has shown greater openness toward journalists since opening peace talks with U.S. officials in 2018. The Taliban now allows limited, heavily monitored media access to areas it controls, and its spokesmen grant interviews and issue news releases — often using technology the group once banned.