Lynne O’Donnell: Taliban detained, abused and threatened me

A female journalist says she was forced to widely retract some of her reports about Afghanistan after being threatened with prison by the Taliban.

Lynne O’Donnell, an Aussie columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, alleges that she has been detained, abused and forced to post a number of tweets stating her articles were fake.

She has since still left Afghanistan.

The Taliban confirmed they had jailed Ms O’Donnell and claimed she had falsified reports.

Afghanistan has become an increasingly hostile place for media, with the current regime cracking down on press freedoms, Human Rights Watch says .

Given that regaining power a year ago, the Taliban have also been tightening restrictions on women. They are prohibited from travelling with no male guardian and secondary schools are shut for girls.

Talking with the BBC following the ordeal, Ms O’Donnell said she acquired travelled to Kabul to see how the nation had changed considering that she left nearly a year ago.

“I went in good trust, ” she said, adding that she had gone straight to the foreign ministry whenever she had came on Sunday in order to declare that the girl was in the country as being a foreign correspondent : a requirement of the regime.

But not lengthy afterwards, a three-day game of cat-and-mouse with the Taliban ensued, during which she has been “detained, abused and threatened”, she wrote in a Foreign Plan article about her encounter.

She said she was accused of “breaking their laws” and “offending Afghan culture, ” using the Taliban claiming content she had written — including one about LGBTQ+ people within Afghanistan and one more on the forced relationship practices of Taliban militants – were lies.

Ms O’Donnell – former agency chief for news agencies AFP and AP in Afghanistan – stands by her reporting.

The girl said the Taliban had asked her to reveal the girl sources for these content articles. But she got refused.

The Taliban foreign ministry said Ms O’Donnell was not asked to expose her sources, but said she acquired failed to produce any proof which demonstrated she had not created the reports.

Microsoft O’Donnell said that right after refusing the Taliban’s requests, she has been then forced to twitter update an apology or even face prison.

She added that the girl was also made to film a video stating that will she had not been coerced into writing the particular tweets.

“They had been bullies. I’d become lying if I declared that I wasn’t scared to some extent. But I wasn’t terrified, inch she told the particular BBC.

She had been later released plus was allowed to board a plane out from the country.

Speaking about her decision to go back to Afghanistan, she stated: “I knew that I was taking a risk in going there: they lock up, these people abuse, they defeat, they kill media who are Afghans. They have a history of using foreigners hostage for leverage. I failed to know that wouldn’t happen to me. ”

She added that will she would not be time for Afghanistan as it would be “reckless” to do so.

But writing in Foreign Policy, the girl said she would not really stop watching or even caring.

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