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On 8 December 2024, the fall of the Assad regime transformed Syria’s media landscape. Freedom of speech became tangible. Long-silenced testimonies resurfaced, hidden documents emerged, and once-impossible conversations now fill independent media – but dwindling funding poses new challenges.
“I have nowhere to live, I chose words,” says Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli in one of her recent verses of pain and exile. Lines that undoubtedly summarize the condition of hundreds of journalists, writers, and artists who over the last seven years have been forced to leave their country, Nicaragua, because of their commitment to freedom.
Sudan’s ongoing war has upended the country’s nascent and burgeoning digital media scene and created a chaotic, polarized information space. The Sudanese journalists who continue to report on the conflict, including the recent wave of killings in El Fasher, risk the most extreme consequences.
Geographic barriers, constant surveillance, and restricted access to their home countries are just some of the challenges faced by investigative journalists living in exile. How to continue reporting from a distance is one part of the story; how to figure out the basics of everyday life in a new country while continuing to do this journalism is perhaps less discussed.
Repression forced journalists to flee their countries, but even from exile three journalists remain committed to reporting what’s happening back home. They shared their stories with an online crowd of almost 200 people in a panel held on Nov. 18 by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
The article describes how journalists across Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Belarus face imprisonment, violence, digital surveillance and disinformation while continuing to report on war, corruption and democracy. It also highlights the urgent need for stronger protections, sustainable media models, and cross-border cooperation to safeguard press freedom in the Eastern Partnership region.
As part of the University of Texas at Austin’s International Education Week, leading journalists from three of the most affected countries will share their experiences of reporting in exile as part of a special virtual panel organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have extended the censorship imposed by their co-presidential regime to the internet. This effectively closes off the last remaining bastion of freedom of expression and of the press in Nicaragua for dissenting voices.
She didn’t want to go into exile, but she had no choice: journalist Mascha Borzunova had to flee Russia. In Hamburg, exiled journalists from Russia, Egypt and Afghanistan describe their situation, pursued even in Germany. “At least we survived and still have readers in Russia,” says Katerina Abramova of Meduza.
While independent online media outlets lost most of their funds due to current legislation, Georgia’s ruling party is said to be spending millions on favorable media organizations. In recent months, dozens of NGOs and media organizations have been subjected to inspections under the new laws, while many others have been forced to scale back or suspend their activities to avoid punitive consequences.
“In 2024, journalism in Latin America faced one of its most hostile environments in decades.” That’s the conclusion of the annual report from Voces del Sur, a coalition of 17 groups from across Latin America that promote freedom of expression and the protection of journalists.
On the second day of the 81st General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), the panel titled “Anatomy of Authoritarian Advance: Handbook of Tactics and Their Effect on the Media” was held, in which the strategies of authoritarian regimes to weaken press freedom in the region were presented.
The civil war in Sudan has displaced over 13 million people. It’s left more than 30 million in need of aid, of which just under 25 million are undergoing acute hunger. Within the vast scope of this humanitarian crisis, journalists on the ground in Sudan are being killed or displaced. This, in turn, is limiting the vital flow of information both inside and out of the country.
The main association monitoring attacks on journalists in El Salvador has become the latest victim of the country’s controversial Foreign Agents Law. The Salvadoran Journalists Association (APES, for its acronym in Spanish) announced on Oct. 1 that it will go into exile as a result of the law, which requires organizations receiving foreign funds to register with the government and levies large fines for those who don’t comply.
On September 22, the Václav Havel Library hosted a discussion titled “How to Run Media from Exile and Remain Relevant in Your Country – The Story of Mizzima and Myanmar’s Independent Media.” The event brought together Soe Myint, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Mizzima, Toe Zaw Latt, General Secretary of the Independent Press Council of Myanmar, and No No Lin, Deputy Director of Mizzima Media.
The removal from the air of a second American comedian since President Donald Trump was elected in the United States should send chills down the spine of every journalist who worked in Moscow in the early 2000s. That was how President Vladimir Putin began consolidating his power — by attacking mainstream media, starting with television and, notably, TV comedians.
Journalist Hassan Ahmed Berkia hasn’t returned to Sudan since the start of the civil war pitting the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Hassan was on a visit in the United Arab Emirates when the war broke out on April 15, 2023.
Having previously exposed abuses such as illegal mining and drug trafficking as a reporter for El Universal, Joseph Poliszuk has since led a trailblazing and courageous team as co-founder of Venezuela’s pioneering investigative journalism outlet Armando.info.