The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has recently said that the Taliban regime must immediately release Ivor Shearer, American journalist and independent filmmaker, and Afghan producer Faizullah Faizbakhsh, who were arrested while they were filming in the Sherpur area of Kabul where a US drone strike killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri earlier in August.
The committee has further added that around 50 Taliban armed intelligence operatives arrived, who blindfolded Shearer and Faizbakhsh and transferred them to an unknown location.
CPJ has further said that it was not able to verify the reason for the detention of Shearer and Faizbakhsh or where they were being held.
According to CPJ, in February 2022, Shearer arrived in Afghanistan on a one-month visa after receiving a work permit from the Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs to produce a documentary about the last 40 years of Afghanistan’s history while on March 3, Shearer was issued a one-year work permit by the Taliban’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and was able to extend his visa to stay until September.
Faizbakhsh works as a producer supporting international journalists in Afghanistan and was contracted by Shearer, CPJ added.
“The Taliban’s increasing pressure and escalating numbers of detentions of journalists and media workers, including the detention of American filmmaker Ivor Shearer and his Afghan colleague Faizullah Faizbakhsh, show the group’s utter lack of commitment to the principle of freedom of the press in Afghanistan,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Taliban officials must immediately release Shearer and Faizbakhsh and stop their intimidation and pressure on the press in Afghanistan.”
