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Belarusian dictator Lukashenko declared himself the victor in the country’s latest so-called presidential elections on Jan. 26, in which no political opposition was allowed to take part. Exiled journalists, including Hanna Komar, Kseniya Halubovich, and Alina Rudina, shared their insights with the Kyiv Independent on the state of press freedom in Belarus following the election.
41 Belarusian journalists remain behind bars since 2020, punished for covering protests against presidential election fraud that gave Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in power. Their prison sentences range from 3 to 15 years, simply for doing their jobs — reporting the news. Hundreds more have fled the country. Yet they continue their work. Why?
The Afghanistan Journalists in Exile in a statement on Sunday said that the Taliban have detained at least 300 journalists and media workers during their three years of rule in the country, describing the detainees as having endured “profound and indescribable violence” while in custody.
After stealing Belarus’s 2020 presidential election, Lukashenko forced many independent media organizations into exile. Among them was Nasha Niva, Belarus’s oldest newspaper and a protector of the country’s unique language and culture. Matt Hooper tells the story of Nasha Niva’s struggle to maintain Belarusian identity and journalistic integrity amid Lukashenka’s crackdown.
Since the Taliban regained power, Afghanistan’s media landscape has faced severe restrictions. Al Jazeera English sat down with Lotfullah Najafizada, the former head of Tolo News, to discuss working in exile and keeping the spirit of Afghan journalism alive.
Afghan journalists in exile confront harsh challenges: after escaping Taliban persecution, they now endure poverty, threats of deportation, and years-long waits for humanitarian visas in Pakistan. Many now struggle with mental health crises as Western nations delay promised aid.
Online violence is often only considered a digital safety issue, but the impact of online abuse on journalists’ mental health is significant and has serious consequences for them, their work, and for press freedom. This is particularly true for women and diverse journalists who are disproportionately targeted by online attacks.
Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, detentions, imprisonments, and torture of journalists have surged, creating a “shadow of restriction and oppression” over press freedom in Afghanistan. Recently the Taliban have ordered TV channels in parts of Afghanistan to cease broadcasting images of living beings, after already banning music and female faces on screen.
The Taliban have aggressively targeted media freedom and journalists over the past three years. They have banned photography and filming, mandated pro-Taliban reporting, used violence against journalists and media staff, carried out arrests, imposed severe censorship, threatened to shut down media institutions, and exploited journalists’ vulnerable status.
The Global Directory of Journalist Safety Trainers & Advisors is a searchable database of security professionals with experience and expertise in journalist safety. It has been created to provide the ACOS Alliance community with direct access to safety trainers and advisors around the world, and to help them connect with those who meet specific geographic and thematic safety needs.
In a new documentary four Afghan women – former parliamentarians, a past minister and a journalist — who fled their homeland after the Taliban-takeover of in August 2021, spotlight the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. “An Unfinished Journey” captures their resilience in exile as they advocate for women’s rights and strive to keep Afghanistan’s plight in global discussions.
Cross-border investigative journalism exposes reporters to unique mental health risks. A new study highlights systemic challenges, including legal threats, remote work stress, and lack of professional support. “Most still rely on individual coping strategies, leaving many systemic challenges to be faced alone,” says writer and researcher Belle de Jong.
Have you ever struggled to find a tool that does exactly what you need? You are not alone. More than 80 percent of open source researchers that participated in two Bellingcat surveys indicated that finding the right tools can be challenging. This is where Bellingcat’s new Online Investigations Toolkit comes in.
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.
The Taliban’s new law on the “Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” bans journalists from publishing or broadcasting content the de facto government believes violates Sharia law or insults Muslims. Article 17 describes several restrictions on the media, including a ban on publishing or broadcasting images of living people and animals which the Taliban consider unislamic.
Afghan media in exile remain economically fragile, even though they are a widely followed source of information, according to a report by the think tank for media professionals, The Fix, and the support fund for journalism in exile, JX Fund, created in 2022 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and its partners.
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.
It is estimated that, nearly 2000 journalists have left Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in 2021. Many sought asylum in Europe and North America, while others settled in Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries. Despite severe challenges Afghan reporters in exile remain committed to keeping the flow of independent news from their homeland alive.