At least 13 journalists and media workers are currently being held in Taliban prisons, according to the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AfJC).
The AfJC called on Taliban officials to stop the persistent harassment of media personnel and urged them to release the Iranian photographer Mohammad Husain Walayati.
Mr Walayati was detained at Kabul airport on August 19 when returning to Iran after a work assignment from Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
In a statement released Tuesday, the AfJC said that Taliban forces have arrested at least 11 journalists in different parts of Afghanistan in the past two weeks, with nine of them still in prison.
At least four other journalists who were arrested in recent months are also in prison, bringing the total number of journalists and media personnel currently held to 13.
Tasnim news agency reported that Mr Walayati, a photographer for the news agency, had been in Afghanistan on a ten-day trip before he was arrested in Kabul.
Tasnim reported that the Taliban forces arrested the photographer without a clear explanation and efforts to negotiate his release have so far failed.
Taliban authorities have not provided any details about Mr Walayati’s arrest.
This is while the Taliban have recently arrested a number of journalists and media personnel from different provinces of the country including Nangarhar, Paktia, and Kandahar.
