More than 300 Afghan journalists have suffered rights breaches since the Taliban surged back to power in 2021, a United Nations report said yesterday, documenting dozens of cases of torture and arbitrary arrest.

Afghanistan's media sector has shrunk under three years of Taliban rule, while monitors criticised Kabul for allegedly trampling reporters' rights.

Research by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and its Geneva-based Human Rights Office said journalists and media outlets "operate under an environment of censorship and tight restrictions".

Between the Taliban's return in August 2021 and this September the UN team "documented instances of human rights violations affecting 336 journalists and media workers", the report said. It recounted 256 instances of "arbitrary arrest and detention", 130 of "torture and ill-treatment" and 75 of "threats or intimidation".

UNAMA chief Roza Otunbayeva said journalists "often face unclear rules on what they can and cannot report, running the risk of intimidation and arbitrary detention for perceived criticism".