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ResidentBat: A New Spyware Family Used by Belarusian KGB

  • RSF

This report introduces the previously unknown Spyware ResidentBat used by the Belarussian secret service KGB. It targets Android phones and is installed through physical device access. Broad application permissions and an accessibility service allow the app access to a wide range of data, spanning phone calls, SMS, encrypted messenger chats and files on the phone.

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Exiled Journalists Report on Legal Violations in Turkey

  • International Journalists
  • Eşe Karaduman

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.

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Twenty years of Zamaneh Media: A legacy in exile

  • NEMO

The Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO) is proud to join in celebrating the 20th anniversary of Zamaneh Media and its flagship independent journalism platform, Radio Zamaneh, which serves audiences in Iran and diaspora communities worldwide. On December 16, Zamaneh’s team will commemorate this milestone with a donation campaign, and by sharing highlights of their work on their website.

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‘We’ve Seen This Before’: Lessons for the Press on Authoritarianism

  • PEN America
  • Julia Goldberg

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.

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EU’s Dangerous ‘Return Hubs’ Policy

  • ECPMF

The EU’s new return policy risks jeopardising the lives of vulnerable journalists and human rights defenders living in exile. As such, it undermines the very principles of press freedom and human rights it aims to uphold and the safe haven the EU seeks to provide for journalists from all over the world threatened for reporting on the truth. ECPMF and undersigning organisations urge the EU to immediately reconsider these adverse effects and prioritise the protection of those who have already fled persecution.

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Azerbaijan: The Price of Victory and the Silence of Dissent

  • Correctiv
  • Fatima Karimova

With our exile expertise, we want to reveal global connections and understand what we can learn from this for free, democratic coexistence. In this episode, Azerbaijani journalist Fatima Karimova writes about the repression of media workers in her homeland and why the European Union repeatedly turns a blind eye to it.

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Iranian Intelligence Expands Spy Network in Germany

  • Iran International

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.

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Independent Media in Post-Assad Syria: A New Chapter Begins

  • IMS
  • Lilas Hatahet

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.

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Building a Pro-Democracy Media for Vietnam in Exile

  • New Bloom
  • Brian Hioe

The article features an interview with Trịnh Hữu Long, a Vietnamese journalist living in exile in Taiwan. Long explains that he has spent the past nine years introducing himself as “from Vietnam, but based in Taiwan,” where he now considers home. He co-founded and works for the independent magazines Luật Khoa and The Vietnamese.

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The Price of Speaking Out in Nicaragua

  • Confidencial
  • Gabriela Selser

“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.

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Why Myanmar Media is Key to Changing Attitudes to Disability

  • UNESCO

The article describes how UNESCO is training journalists from Myanmar to improve disability-inclusive reporting, combat stigma, and ensure more accurate and accessible media coverage. It highlights how local and ethnic media, guided by persons with disabilities, can drive meaningful change by shifting narratives, newsroom practices, and representation.

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Vietnamese Government Sues Berlin-Based Exiled Journalists

  • Deutschlandfunk
  • Sebastian Engelbrecht

This episode of the mediares podcast takes a closer look at the case in which the Vietnamese government is suing Berlin-based exile journalists. Sebastian Engelbrecht discusses the political background, the implications for press freedom, and what this cross-border legal action means for journalists living in exile.

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Propaganda in Belarus: The Goal is to Paralyze Critical Thinking

  • dekoder
  • Pavlyuk Bykovsky

Journalist and propaganda expert Pavlyuk Bykovsky analyzes the role propaganda plays in the Lukashenko regime and how it has evolved since the mass protests of 2020. Bykovsky’s contribution not only helps to understand the specific principles of the Lukashenko dictatorship, but also sheds light on the general mechanisms of propaganda and disinformation.

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Sexual Violence Against Zimbabwean Exiled Journalist

  • Law and Democracy Support Foundation (LDSF)

Law and Democracy Support Foundation (LDSF) strongly condemns the sexual and physical assaults, threats, and surveillance targeting the exiled journalist Sophia Tekwani and her family in Sweden, as part of a dangerous pattern of transnational repression by Zimbabwean authorities.

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Exiled Channels Dominate Despite Iran Media Crackdown

  • ZoomBangla News

Iran’s government is intensifying its media restrictions. This effort is backfiring dramatically. Exiled opposition channels are now setting the domestic news agenda. According to The Economist, state minders severely limit foreign journalists’ access.

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Casualty of War: Sudan’s Media Emergency

  • Nieman Reports
  • Meera Selva

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.

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Two-Thirds of Exiled Journalists Leave the Profession

  • BAJ
  • Hanna Valynec

Work in exile does not mean a happy end  –  it makes inequalities deeper. Furthermore, two-thirds of journalists in exile leave the profession, while working in editorial offices tend to be more sustainable. Researcher and Professor at Salzburg University, Hanan Badr, discusses the collective experience of journalists in exile.

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Exiled Newsrooms are Finding Hope in New Revenue Strategies

  • Reuters Institute
  • Natalia Zhdanova

The situation for independent media is not getting any easier, and the grant crisis of 2025 has shown just how vulnerable journalists are, especially those working in exile. But many newsrooms are developing innovative ideas to replace some of this lost funding and even developing news products aimed at different audiences in the diaspora or elsewhere.

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