JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

Cyber censorship is quickly becoming a  weapon of choice for Turkish authorities looking to silence journalists in exile. At least five reporters have been targeted online, notably by having their social media accounts censored in Türkiye. Four of them are facing potential prison sentences as they are unjustly prosecuted — some of these lawsuits stretching over a decade.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) sheds light on the precarious conditions facing journalists in the African Great Lakes region. The new report details threats from armed groups, state repression, legal harassment and displacement, showing how many reporters are pushed into exile or forced to work underground. It highlights risks to press freedom and the resilience of independent media.

In recent years, democracy in West Africa has faced serious setbacks. Countries in the Sahel region, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, and others like Guinea and Guinea-Bissau have experienced military takeovers accompanied by violations of freedom of expression and press freedom. These violations have been severe enough to force journalists and civil society actors to flee their home countries for their own safety.

Myanmar’s military regime has established a new multilingual propaganda body to push its narrative and counter independent media coverage abroad. The committee, led by a senior junta official, will publish information sheets in Burmese, English, Chinese and Russian and ramp up social media operations to promote the regime’s policies and respond to criticism from exiled and independent outlets.

As Iran imposed a near-total internet blackout during nationwide protests, exiled journalists became a crucial source of information. This Reuters Institute piece highlights how reporters outside the country verify videos, rely on fragmented sources and navigate disinformation, showing both the importance and the limits of reporting on a country cut off from the digital world

More than 300 Nicaraguan journalists have been forced into exile since 2018, facing worsening economic hardship, shrinking funding and ongoing threats. This report examines how repression extends beyond borders through surveillance and intimidation, while many journalists struggle to survive, abandon the profession or continue reporting under precarious and often silent conditions.

When a newsroom is forced into exile, relocation is often described as hope: physical safety, freedom of expression, open internet access, and the ability to publish without censorship. In practice, however, the main challenge quickly moves from physical security to survival and continuity.

On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, the Freedom Convention Turkey 2025 took place at the National Press Club in Washington. Organized by Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) under the slogan “Turkey at a Crossroads: Democracy and Justice,” the event brought together victims of state violence, dismissed academics, exiled journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society actors.

Weaponizing the law to silence journalists, turning reporters into public enemies, and cutting off access to information are all tactics familiar to four journalists — Pethő, M. Gessen, Ramón Zamora, and Sevgi Akarçeşme — who gathered at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY to discuss their experiences witnessing the rise of global authoritarian regimes and the warning signs they’re watching emerge in the United States.

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence is intensifying efforts to recruit dissidents in Germany as informants by blackmailing their relatives back home, according to an investigation by the Die Welt newspaper. The report details the chain of events and techniques agents use through social media and messaging platforms like WhatsApp to turn exiles into “disposable informants” in espionage parlance.

On 8 December 2024, the fall of the Assad regime transformed Syria’s media landscape. Freedom of speech became tangible. Long-silenced testimonies resurfaced, hidden documents emerged, and once-impossible conversations now fill independent media – but dwindling funding poses new challenges.

“I have nowhere to live, I chose words,” says Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli in one of her recent verses of pain and exile. Lines that undoubtedly summarize the condition of hundreds of journalists, writers, and artists who over the last seven years have been forced to leave their country, Nicaragua, because of their commitment to freedom.

Sudan’s ongoing war has upended the country’s nascent and burgeoning digital media scene and created a chaotic, polarized information space. The Sudanese journalists who continue to report on the conflict, including the recent wave of killings in El Fasher, risk the most extreme consequences.

Geographic barriers, constant surveillance, and restricted access to their home countries are just some of the challenges faced by investigative journalists living in exile. How to continue reporting from a distance is one part of the story; how to figure out the basics of everyday life in a new country while continuing to do this journalism is perhaps less discussed.

Repression forced journalists to flee their countries, but even from exile three journalists remain committed to reporting what’s happening back home. They shared their stories with an online crowd of almost 200 people in a panel held on Nov. 18 by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

The article describes how journalists across Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Belarus face imprisonment, violence, digital surveillance and disinformation while continuing to report on war, corruption and democracy. It also highlights the urgent need for stronger protections, sustainable media models, and cross-border cooperation to safeguard press freedom in the Eastern Partnership region.

As part of the University of Texas at Austin’s International Education Week, leading journalists from three of the most affected countries will share their experiences of reporting in exile as part of a special virtual panel organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have extended the censorship imposed by their co-presidential regime to the internet. This effectively closes off the last remaining bastion of freedom of expression and of the press in Nicaragua for dissenting voices.