Two more journalists have been arrested by Taliban authorities in southern Afghanistan, where women's voices were also barred from radio broadcasts.
A source who requested anonymity told RFE/RL that Taliban forces arrested journalists Attaullah Omar and Waheedur Rahman Afghanmal in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on August 13.
Omar is a Kandahar correspondent for Tolo News, Afghanistan's leading independent television news station, while Afghanmal reports for the daily Etilat-e Roz.
Their arrest follows the detention of five journalists in different parts of Afghanistan this month.
Meanwhile, the Taliban's Information and Culture Ministry in the southern Helmand Province ordered local radio stations to stop broadcasting women's voices, even in advertisements.
SEE ALSO: Islam Does Not Ban Girls' Education. So Why Does The Taliban?"All the radio stations in Helmand have been warned that if they broadcast the voice of a woman, they will be shut and their owners will be punished," one station manager, who requested anonymity, told Radio Azadi on August 14.
In an August 13 statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Taliban to "stop its relentless campaign" of muzzling the free press two years after returning to power in August 2021.
"Worsening media repression is isolating Afghanistan from the rest of the world at a time when the country is grappling with one of the world's largest humanitarian emergencies," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi.
Despite promises to allow press freedom after returning to power, the Taliban has shut down independent radio stations, television studios, and newspapers. Some media outlets have closed after losing funding.
Its hard-line government has banned some international broadcasters while some foreign correspondents were denied visas.
The ultraconservative Islamist group has driven hundreds of Afghan journalists into exile.