JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

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).

The Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization (AJSO) has published its findings from a survey in which 310 Afghan journalists, both in Afghanistan and in exile, participated. The new report mainly focuses on the needs of journalists in capacity building.

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?

The Taliban claim that there is freedom of the press in the country. Even Western Youtubers are allowed to come – if they report positively and adhere to strict conditions.

Press freedom faces growing threats globally. Despite efforts to highlight its importance, press freedom is declining globally. Below are ten figures from this year’s World Press Freedom Day, what they show, and, sometimes, what they don’t.

Decreasing press freedom sometimes forces journalists to flee their home countries to be able to report on them safely. But operating news outlets in exile is another beast on its own, and exiled journalists are met with financial, logistical, and editorial challenges at every step.

The Etilaat Roz was once the most widely circulated newspaper in Kabul, but everything changed in August 2021 when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. In this unique video diary, journalist Abbas Rezaie follows the tenacious correspondents as they continue to report the news.

Threats from the state have led many journalists across the world to flee their home countries to report from elsewhere. But for many the intimidation did not stop when they left.

In the central Sahel, journalists and reporters have seen their working conditions deteriorate ever since they were taken over by military juntas, international organisations have found.

Guatemala’s new government has made press freedom a priority. But journalists are skeptical. The “pact of the corrupt” still has too much influence. And those who report critically on it are therefore staying abroad for the time being.

The number of BBC World Service journalists working in exile is estimated to have nearly doubled, to 310, since 2020. The figures, released for the first time ahead of World Press Freedom Day, reflect press crackdowns in Russia, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia.

Ahead of World Press Freedom Day on Friday 3 May, the BBC is announcing for the first time that over 300 World Service journalists – around 15% – are working in exile. Recent crackdowns on press freedom in Russia, Afghanistan and Ethiopia have pushed more BBC teams to relocate for their own safety, many leaving family and friends behind.

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur (Irene Khan) on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression focuses on journalists in exile who face a variety of physical, digital and legal threats. She analyses the responses of States and companies to these threats and challenges.

Pouria Zeraati, journalist and reporter for Iran International, was stabbed outside his London home. A Guardian report says that the attack was believed to be another example of Iran hiring proxies to assault its critics in the west.