We shed light on the regime’s crimes from the US, thanks to the extreme bravery of reporters on the ground
Sakhidad Hatif is the new editor-in-chief of Etilaat Roz, which is the subject of the Guardian documentary House No 30, Kabul
In the two decades before the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan had a vibrant media sector. There were newspapers, television channels, periodicals, magazines and more, invigorating the public discourse by allowing citizens to express their views on national and local issues. That is completely gone now.
I have been the editor-in-chief of one of Afghanistan’s largest newspapers, Etilaat Roz, since 2022. When the Taliban dismantled the republican system of the country in August 2021, establishing their own theocratic Islamic emirate in the process, they imposed the harshest restrictions possible on the media. This “crackdown on free speech” was followed by the prolonged detention, gruesome beating and even death of journalists who defied the Taliban’s policies against the free press. Two of my reporters at Etilaat Roz were grievously assaulted and detained for doing their jobs.
Sakhidad Hatif is editor-in-chief of Etilaat Roz
Watch Guardian documentary House No 30, Kabul (26 mins), a video diary by journalist Abbas Rezaie, shot inside the Etilaat Roz office when the Taliban seized power in 2021 and forced many of the journalists to flee abroad
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