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Since March 2022, The Moscow Times has had to operate in exile from Amsterdam. Like dozens of other exile media outlets, it endures impossible conditions and high security risks to be a beacon of hope. A visit to the newsroom.
Lilia Yapparova explores the crisis within Russia’s exiled opposition three years into the war, as internal divisions and the death of Alexey Navalny leave many anti-war Russians feeling disillusioned and unrepresented. She examines the movement’s fragmentation, the challenges faced by its leaders in exile, and the uncertain future of Russia’s pro-democracy forces.
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.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has designated the independent media outlet Komi Daily as a “terrorist organization”. This marks the first time the FSB has applied such a label to a media outlet. The Supreme Court finalized the designation in late December, intensifying Russia’s suppression of dissenting voices, particularly the independent media critical of the Kremlin.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, Afghanistan’s media landscape has undergone drastic changes, marked by severe restrictions on press freedom. Journalists face constant threats, censorship, and violence, especially when covering topics like women’s rights, human rights, and the actions of the Afghan government.
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.
Over the past year, Russia has done more than simply refine its already deeply repressive system – it is currently in the middle of building a new model of digital censorship, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on top of its already bloated propaganda budgets to ensure its people are fully isolated from independent and objective voices. One of the Kremlin’s most important targets: Russian independent media in exile.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, the Russian regime has targeted journalists on the frontlines with deliberate attacks, leading to numerous deaths and injuries among women reporters. This campaign of terror aims to suppress independent reporting and obscure the realities of the conflict.
This report challenges the claims that there is no civil society to speak of inside the Russian Federation and that most of its activists are now in exile. A significant number of independent and democratically oriented initiatives and organizations continue to operate throughout the country to address societal issues through civic engagement. These should be acknowledged.
FRF Think Tank presents a policy brief addressing the situation of Russian citizens seeking protection in the EU, set against the backdrop of a severely deteriorating human rights situation in Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A third of the victims of Russia’s “foreign agents” law are independent media, which makes them the primary target of this legislation — and highlights their systematic legal persecution. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has analysed the Ministry of Justice’s blacklists of “foreign agents” and “undesirable organisations” – which are used as tools of censorship – and condemns the stigmatisation of independent media as a fifth column.
The Taliban takeover in 2021 ended a period of media flourishing and improving freedom of expression in Afghanistan. The collapse of the Afghan government and the resurgence of authoritarian rule have created an environment of fear and uncertainty within the media community. Independent and diverse non-state media are in danger; many journalists have fled their homeland in search of safety and freedom.
After the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022 and since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the legal basis for the Russian state’s digital surveillance of opposition and anti-Kremlin citizens has been expanded. This report presents a chronological list of legal restrictions on internet freedom due to expanded surveillance measures and describes the technical implementation of surveillance.
The legal basis for combating independent media and media professionals in Russia emerged in the 2010s. In the 2020s, the state significantly expanded its options for repression. Media outlets and individuals were declared foreign agents and the number of cases against media professionals based on extremism paragraphs increased. This report provides an overview of the latest developments.
According to a survey of Russian media professionals in exile, most of them do not live in the EU but in other countries (Georgia, Armenia, Central Asia, Serbia, etc.) despite the high risks due to a lack of legal options and insufficient financial resources. On behalf of RSF, the Russian human rights organization Mass Media Defence Center has prepared an analysis of the situation of independent journalists from Russia in exile.
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.
Despite many challenges, independent Belarusian media are still uniquely valued by their audiences. The study “Silenced But Resilient: Belarusian Media Since the Revolution of 2020” by JX Fund and The Fix Research and Advisory is giving an overview of Belarusian media in exile since 2020.
The journalism landscape in Afghanistan has undergone a significant and distressing transformation following the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021.