London – Australian journalist Lynne O’Donnell, a columnist for the US magazine Foreign Policy, returned to Afghanistan this week to revive life under the Taliban’s “reign of terror” in power and left hours before the fundamentalist group took over the country. Government in August 2021
But her stay was short-lived and marred by relentless persecution for her past reporting on LGBT and Afghan women.
O’Donnell, the former head of the Afghan branch of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Associated Press (AP) from 2009 to 2017, was detained, questioned and forced to apologize for his stories on social media on the condition that he would not be arrested. He was allowed to leave the country, but after arriving in Pakistan he denounced the story.
Persecution of journalists in Afghanistan
The Lynne O’Donnell case is the latest example of the extent to which press freedom has deteriorated in Afghanistan. Since the fall of the official government, Taliban agents have practiced censorship and intimidation.
last December, According to a survey by Reporters Without Borders, 40 percent of local independent cars have stopped working.
An order from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Violence in May women banned from showing their faces on television and has been challenged by some publishers. In others, colleagues men showed support covering their faces.
The ban confirms the pessimism of those who do not believe in religion. The Taliban promised that journalism would be respected, It was made shortly after the seizure of power.
O’Donnell is Australian and is a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine. As the government’s fall was imminent, he was able to leave the country a few hours before the Taliban took over. But he decided to return this week, as he reported in his column:
“I wanted to see for myself what has happened to Afghanistan since I left Kabul on August 15, 2021, hours before what many residents are now calling a ‘reign of terror’ begins.”
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The journalist arrived in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on July 16. The next day, in an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), he said he had gone to the State Department to register as a foreign press specialist.
However, ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi denied its registration, claiming that the reports prepared by O’Donnell on the situation of LGBT people in the country in 2021 and the situation of young people forced to marry Taliban commanders were “false”.
Therefore, he would be contacted by intelligence officers and forced to leave the country. That same day, a government agent called him and asked him to participate in an interrogation by the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI); refused.
However, two days later, the same agent called and said that if he did not testify, he would be prevented from leaving the country. Four Taliban government agents went to O’Donnell’s residence and took him to the GDI office.
He reported being held under duress for four hours and threatened with arrest. Officials said he could leave the country if he publicly apologized on social media for the stories.
He posted the withdrawal on his personal Twitter account and flew from Afghanistan to Pakistan the next day, O’Donnell told CPJ.
“I apologize for the 3 or 4 articles I wrote accusing the authorities of forcibly marrying young people and using them as sex slaves for Taliban commanders. This was a premeditated attempt at ‘character assassination’ and an insult to Afghan culture.
These stories were written without any evidence or solid foundation and without any effort to verify them through investigation or face-to-face interviews with alleged victims.”
These stories were written without any concrete evidence or basis and without any effort to verify the examples on the spot.
investigation or face-to-face interviews with alleged victims.– Lynne O’Donnell (@lynnekodonnell) 19 July 2022
Journalist called Taliban ‘cat and mouse’
Lynne O’Donnell explained in her column on Wednesday that the tweets were posted under threat of arrest. She was also forced to record a video that denied being asked to post it on the social network she.
O’Donnell was ordered to disclose his sources and full details, as well as notes, photographs, video and video recordings. The journalist also said that he was forced to record a video by Afghan authorities stating that he was not.
“Tweet an apology or go to jail,” said Taliban intelligence. Whatever the cost: They dictated. I tweeted,” O’Donnell said.
According to him, officials said the information contained in the stories were “dreams, fabricated lies, and sources were not available”.
“Tweet an apology or go to jail,” he said. #Taliban intelligence. Whatever it takes: They dictated it. I tweeted. They didn’t like it. Deleted, edited, retweeted. He took a video where I said I wasn’t having a hard time. He did this again.#TwoTakesTaliban (I am outside now) #Afghanistan #journalism
– Lynne O’Donnell (@lynnekodonnell) 20 July 2022
In his text, the journalist reported that he was in contact with Australian diplomats and a journalist friend who saw his WhatsApp location in real time during his time in the office of the Taliban.
“I texted them and my editors in Foreign Policy for four hours,” he said.
After recording the video and posting it on Twitter, agents told the Australian he was “free” and could “go anywhere in the country”.
After the meeting and based on his experience in the country, the journalist said that the Taliban are “violent men who take pride in violence”, while also stressing that they “completely lack the ability and incapacity to govern”.
On Thursday, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Balkhi made a statement on Twitter claiming the journalist had “offered to rectify the situation with an apology” and said the Taliban “adhered to the principles of freedom of the press”.
my answer to misleading statements by @lynnekodonnell publication of irresponsible article by @Foreign policy — sets a new low for the journalistic standard.https://t.co/gH3uongAE5 pic.twitter.com/Pa4OVNZdrt
— Abdul Qahar Balkhi (@QaharBalkhi) 21 July 2022
The journalist says he will never return to Afghanistan after leaving the country.
“Afghanistan’s once proud independent media is gone, and now it is gone.
The country is plunged into a hellish landscape of terror, hunger and poverty. But who will tell the story?
A survey published in March by the International Federation of Journalists showed that less than six months after coming to power, 87% of women journalists suffered gender discrimination during the Taliban regime, and 60% of them lost their jobs and careers.
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source: Noticias
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