JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

Valera Ilinov, the founder of the leading independent media outlet covering the republic of Komi, sees his work as inherently political and decolonial. Last month, the 24-year-old founder of Komi’s flagship independent news outlet Komi Daily was fined for violating Russia’s censorship laws twice in one week.

In Nicaragua, journalism has been persecuted, censored, and criminalized by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo since 2018. By 2022, several journalists were in jail for practicing their profession, many of them had been assaulted by the Police and regime sympathizers, and three independent media outlets—La Prensa, CONFIDENCIAL, and 100% Noticias—had been closed and confiscated, and dozens of journalists had gone into exile to avoid prison.

Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, a Cuban independent journalist who had been imprisoned in Cuba since 2021 because of his reporting, was released Wednesday on the condition that he leave the island for exile in the United States.

Small newsrooms need to focus on the importance of data use more than ever. But they often face numerous hurdles to this kind of work, including a lack of funding, limited human resources, and outdated thinking about what constitutes traditional journalism.

Following last year’s joint investigation into the use of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware against Galina Timchenko, co-founder, CEO, and publisher of Meduza, Access Now, the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto (“the Citizen Lab”), and independent digital security expert Nikolai Kvantiliani have uncovered how at least seven more Russian, Belarusian, Latvian, and Israeli journalists and activists have been targeted with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware within the EU.

At least seven journalists and activists who have been vocal critics of the Kremlin and its allies have been targeted inside the EU by a state using Pegasus, the hacking spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group, according to a new report by security researchers.

From Russia to Sudan, rising authoritarianism and threats to press freedom are driving a growing number of journalists to flee their home countries and try to resume their work from abroad. Media organizations in democratic countries have a collective duty to support them.

„I consider this label repressive. But I can say for sure that we will continue to work, whatever they call us,“ says Daria Poryadina, editor of the exile-Russian news outlet SOTA, that got declared an ‚undesirable organization‘ by Russia’s Prosecutor General on May 16.

A large-scale surveillance program covertly operated by the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s intelligence arm has been targeting critical and independent journalists living in exile in Europe, the United States and Canada, as revealed by confidential documents obtained by Nordic Monitor.

A Moscow Court has registered a misdemeanor case accusing Meduza co-founder Galina Timchenko of participating in an “undesirable organization,” Mediazona reported on May 27, citing online records.

Journalism has moved online, exposing journalists to targeted attacks and surveillance. This guide helps building digital armor, protecting data, sources, and critical work in an evolving digital landscape.

Thousands of journalists have fled their home countries in recent years to escape political repression, save their lives and escape conflict – but in exile they are often vulnerable to physical, digital and legal threats, a U.N. investigator said.

Journalists today are often primary targets of online harassment, trolling, doxxing, hacking and spyware. In addition to abuse from anonymous users online, they are also subject to surveillance, intimidation and persecution by powerful entities like large corporations, legal and local authorities, or the state machinery at large.

Since the 2021 military coup, Myanmar has become one of the worst countries globally in terms of the number of journalists jailed, with 206 reporters detained including 31 women over the past three years, according to a recent report by the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law (ICNL).

She has been actively developing grassroots journalism in a region where ethnic minorities have struggled to have their stories heard in the face of the dominant community’s influence. Now in exile, Nan Paw Gays commitment to advancing the voices of the ethnic minorities in Myanmar continues. In an interview with WAN-IFRA she shares thoughts and experiences of her journey in exile.

Uncovering a multimillion-dollar aid scandal in Venezuela took great personal and professional risks for Roberto Deniz, a reporter with investigative media outlet Armando Info. Their revelations made Deniz and his editors targets of the Maduro government and forced the journalist into exile in 2018. Despite everything, Deniz feels the risk was worth it.

Some 310 BBC World Service journalists, approximately 15% of the total, are currently in exile due to restrictions on press freedom and bullying by authorities. How are BBC World Service stories reaching audiences in authoritarian states and how do journalists report when exiled?

Reporters Without Borders has ranked Belarus as the worst country for press freedom in Europe. Maria Savushkina, a Belarusian journalist currently living in Berlin, reaches tens of thousands of people back home with her political satire.