Investigating under fire: Journalistic challenges in Afghanistan’s Republic era (2001–2021)

Investigative journalism plays a vital role in exposing wrongdoing. This study examines the practices and challenges of investigative reporting in Afghanistan during the Republic era (2001–2021). Drawing on in-depth interviews with fifteen investigative journalists from leading television networks, it applies the Hierarchy of Influences model to analyze how multiple levels of pressure shaped investigative reporting in a conflict-affected context. The findings reveal that investigative reporting was constrained across the individual, routines, organizational, extramedia, and social system levels. At the individual level, journalists engaged in anticipatory self-censorship. At the routines level, newsroom practices and narration strategies reflected the normalization of insecurity in everyday work. Organizational pressures, including financial constraints, media dependency, and editorial control, undermined investigative practice. At the extramedia level, pressures from government officials, armed groups, and other actors created an unpredictable reporting environment. At the social system level, weak rule of law, limited enforcement, restricted access to information, and cultural norms narrowed the scope of investigative reporting. The study extends the Hierarchy of Influences model by demonstrating that macro-level pressures converged at the story-conception stage, producing temporal compression across levels of influence. At the same time, journalists exercised negotiated agency through adaptive strategies that enabled investigative journalism to persist despite severe constraints.