Fact Check: Has Taliban Killed A Journalist Of German TV Channel DW?

Doha: With Taliban establishing their hold on Afghanistan, reports of journalists being murdered are doing the rounds.

The Taliban have reportedly hunted down a journalist from German broadcast channel Deutsche Welle (DW) and raided the homes of three other journalists in Kabul.

The Taliban have killed a member of the journalist’s family and severely injured another. However, the journalist in question is reportedly in Germany currently.

Ironically, the Taliban, in their recent press conference, said they will allow free media.

DW said the Taliban is conducting door-to-door searches to find this journalist, who hasn’t been named. Some relatives of the journalist have managed to flee the country.

“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban … is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” DW Director General Peter Limbourg said late on Thursday.

Afghan journalists pointed out that the Taliban have assured safety for the media.

“For the time being, they are saying we do not have any problem, even female journalists can go to TV, they can do shows,” he told DW in an interview.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to arrange for 10,000 Afghans at risk to be moved out of the country.