The Taliban group deported an Australian journalist from the country after threatening, forcing her to apologize, and recording a forced confession.
Lynne O’Donnell is an Australian journalist and columnist for Foreign Policy.
On Tuesday (July 19, 2022) Lynne O’Donnell tweeted: “l apologize for 3 or 4 reports written by me accusing the present authorities of forcefully marrying teenage girls and using teenage girls as sexual slaves by the Taliban commanders.
This was a premeditated attempt at character assassination and an affront to Afghan culture.”
She continued: “These stories were written without any solid proof or basis and without any effort to verify instances through on-site
investigation or face-to-face meetings with alleged victims.”
But one day later she tweeted: “Tweet an apology or go to jail, said #Taliban intelligence. Whatever it takes: They dictated. I tweeted. They didn’t like it. Deleted, edited, re-tweeted. Made a video of me saying I wasn’t coerced. Re-did that too. I’m ou now.”
The attempt to suppress journalists and prevent publishing reports about the corruption and crimes of the Taliban leaders is so obvious. In the past eleven months since the Taliban occupation, six Afghan journalists have been killed and at least six other journalists have been imprisoned in the group’s torture centers for months.
According to the annual report of the United Nations on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, the Taliban group violated the human rights of journalists and media workers in 163 cases within 10 months, including 122 cases of arbitrary arrest, 58 cases of ill_treatment, 33 cases of threats and intimidation, and 12 cases of detention as well as 6 cases of murder.
Translated by: Ali Rezaei
