JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

In this article Emma Löfgren, editor at The Local and contributor at The Fix, rounds up some of the insights she learned when interviewing five leading experts for audience building.

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.

One of the Belarusian media outlets that has survived in exile is Dev.by, a publisher dedicated to the IT industry in Belarus and the world, producing news, interviews, reports, and analytics. The organisation operates in spite of constant threats and lack of funding. Dev.by’s CEO and founder Artiom Kontsevoi shared with The Fix how they manage to operate in such unstable conditions.

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 But they often face numerous hurdles to this kind of work, including a lack of funding, limited human resources, and outdated thinking about what constitutes traditional journalism.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tracking impacts is especially critical for exiled media outlets due to the distance they operate from their target audiences and home countries. While there are several analytics tools to measure different aspects of your work, it can often be overwhelming to decide which tools to use. Here’s how to consider what tools to use for measuring impact for exiled journalists.

The Editor Safety Hub is a dedicated training platform for news editors and managers, providing them with a free and efficient way to improve their safety skills and practice through self-paced courses, practical tools and resources. It is created by the ACOS Alliance and WAN-IFRA in partnership with leading safety trainers, editors and journalists.