JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

Organizing collaborative projects comes with its own challenges. This comprehensive guide, organized into seven chapters, also includes tips and tools, extra reading material, templates, and other links for more information.

Hundreds of journalists are forced into exile around the world by despots, autocrats, and crime cartels. Exiled editors are an old story. But amid the modern backlash against independent media, journalists are taking advantage of a new era in tools and technology. These digital toolkits are proving a game-changer, enabling journalists to better report on their homelands, and their audiences to better access that reporting.

As traditional funding models for journalism falter, philanthropy emerges as a crucial lifeline for news organizations. At the 2024 iMEdD International Journalism Forum, experts discussed the dynamics between funders and newsrooms, emphasizing the importance of empathy, long-term relationships, and strategic sustainability in navigating the evolving landscape of journalism.

What has happened to the Belarusian media and journalists since the day of the presidential elections — from 9 August 2020 until today — is an unprecedented case of the eradication of independent journalism in a single country, in the centre of Europe, in the 21st century.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has launched a new online training course for exiled journalists, in partnership with the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). The free e-learning course, which covers areas like UK media law, public affairs, writing styles and an introduction to the UK media industry, will help journalists forced to relocate to continue reporting.

Finding funding for your journalism organization can be a daunting responsibility — especially if your organization does not have someone experienced in fundraising. The process is similar to investigative journalism: first, you must research funding sources, then prepare your story, and write a compelling narrative that makes the reader understand the importance of your work — and the need to fund it.

Newsletters are an effective way to establish a direct contact with your audience, unmitigated by the whims of social media algorithms. For individual journalists, newsletters can be a profitable option to share their work with their readers. But how?

From Afghanistan and Russia, to Venezuela, Eritrea and beyond, journalists globally have fled – and continue to flee – threats to their lives and livelihoods under authoritarian regimes. Entire newsrooms in these contexts, too, have shuttered operations to avoid imminent danger to their employees and financial ruin.

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.

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.

Tackling Disinformation: A Learning Guide offers insights for evaluating media development activities and rethinking approaches to disinformation, alongside practical solutions and expert advice, with a focus on the Global South and Eastern Europe.

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.

In partnership with the Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO) the International Journalists‘ Network compiled an Exiled Media Toolkit, that brings resources to journalists and outlets established or preparing to be in exile, as they report on communities and events in their home countries.

For journalists living in exile, emotional stress and trauma cannot be discounted. Leaving one’s home is never easy, and the mental toll is more excruciating when forced to flee. Here are three levels of support to consider when looking after your mental health as a journalist in exile.

The International Press Institute has urged Poland’s Foreign Ministry to reconsider its decision to cut the financing of Belsat, a flagship Belarusian-language broadcaster operating within Poland’s public television service (TVP), amid growing concern about the survival of exiled Belarusian media. With the budget slashed, Belsat is not alone in being in a precarious state.

In 2023, female journalists faced a disproportionate number of verbal attacks, especially online. The MFRR partners call for collaborative efforts to protect their rights and foster a society free from discrimination.

To mark International Women’s Day during a potentially tumultuous election year, GIJN’s global team spoke with women investigative journalists about their election coverage best practices.

On 4 March the New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger delivered the 2024 Reuters Memorial Lecture. Here’s the transcript of his talk.