JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

The controversial re-election of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela will “worsen” attacks on the press, said Artur Romeu, the Latin America director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). He also warned of an escalation in the persecution of journalists in Nicaragua.

When exiled Russian news website Meduza was hit with a flood of internet traffic in mid-April, it set off alarm bells among the staff as the deluge blocked publishing for more than four hours and briefly rendered the site inaccessible for some readers. It was the largest distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) attack in Meduza’s 10-year history.

Over the past decade, YouTube has become a vital platform for dissenting viewpoints as the Kremlin has clamped down on internet and media freedoms. For the exiled Russian opposition and independent media, losing it would mean losing a critical means of reaching millions inside Russia and countering the Kremlin’s propaganda.

Three years after mass protests in Cuba, exiled journalist José Jasán Nieves Cárdenas reports facing new threats from Havana. The editor of the independent news website El Toque is among dozens of journalists and activists who say they continue to endure harassment and intimidation.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Riga became a hub for exiled Russian journalists. Among the first to arrive was TV Rain, a flagship of independent Russian media.

A Moscow court has sentenced exiled journalist Mikhail Zygar to eight-and-a-half years in prison in absentia for spreading so-called “fake” information about the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine, the independent Mediazona news website reported Tuesday.

Opponents of Russia’s war against Ukraine are discovering that their government ID cards have been canceled since they fled Russia. Deutsche Welle spoke to those affected.

In Spring 2024, a delegation from the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) conducted a press freedom fact-finding mission to Tbilisi, Georgia as part of a project funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Today, ECPMF publishes a report detailing the findings of the mission, which paint a picture of independent media in the midst of an existential crisis.

When forcing journalists into exile fails to silence them, authoritarian governments turn to transnational repression. Read here how Cuban repression has followed editor José Jasán Nieves Cárdenas to the United States.

At least 300 journalists have fled Nicaragua, Ecuador and Guatemala and gone into exile in recent years, according to various press freedom organizations. Numbers from Venezuela are unavailable, but that country has experienced a mass exodus of millions, including journalists.

On June 18, 2024, Kazakhstani opposition journalist Aidos Sadykov, who received political asylum in Ukraine 10 years ago, was shot outside of his Kyiv apartment. Meduza shares an abridged translation of a report by Mediazona Central Asia on who Sadykov was, why he was forced into exile, and what we know about his murder.

This report covers the period from 2021 to 2023, during which almost 70% of all attacks on media workers in Russia have been recorded since monitoring began in 2017. The attacks of the Russian authorities on journalists and bloggers over the past three years have taken on an unprecedented scale.

Four years after the enactment of a draconian national security law – a turning point in the decline of press freedom in Hong Kong – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) takes a closer look at the plight of exiled journalists and calls for greater support for their diaspora-led media.

With conflict, repression and censorship driving large numbers of media into exile, VOA spoke with journalists on the front lines: from navigating gang violence in Ecuador, assassination plots targeting Iranian journalists on British and U.S. soil, and repressive policies affecting Afghan media.

This documentary explores the systematic suppression of media and freedom of expression by authoritarian regimes in Russia, Turkey, and Belarus and the state of exiled journalism – through interviews with journalists, who risk their lives to uphold the truth.

At least 26 governments have targeted journalists abroad, according to Freedom House, which has identified 112 incidents against journalists from 2014 to 2023, including assault, detention, unlawful deportation, rendition, and assassination. For some journalists, leaving the country might not always guarantee safety.

Threats, repression, conflict, and unrest: across the world, these and other factors are pushing journalists into exile in record numbers. In a striking development, exiled or soon-to-be exiled journalists now make up more than half of the people CPJ assists. While exile is a global issue, three countries — Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan — stand out as places from which journalists flee only to face further insecurity. Below, find case studies on each country.