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Kremlin Blocks YouTube, Russian Users Find Workarounds

  • The New York Times
  • Paul Sonne

Paul Sonne (NYT) reports on the Kremlin’s efforts to cripple YouTube in Russia, pushing users toward state-controlled platforms. While many Russians are finding ways around the restrictions through VPNs, journalist Ilya Shepelin, now in exile, warns that only politically active users will remain on YouTube.

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2024 Assistance Report

  • RSF

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released its 2024 Assistance Report, revealing a growing trend of forced exile among journalists worldwide. In 2024, the organization allocated 70% of its emergency funds to relocating over 700 persecuted journalists and provided financial aid to 42 media outlets facing crises.

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China, Israel, and Myanmar: Top Jailers of Journalists

  • Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

China, Israel, and Myanmar emerged as the world’s three worst offenders in another record-setting year for journalists jailed because of their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2024 prison census has found. Belarus and Russia rounded out the top five, with CPJ documenting its second-highest number of journalists behind bars.

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Why Do Belarusian Journalists Risk Their Lives For The Truth?

  • The Journal
  • Sasha Romanova

41 Belarusian journalists remain behind bars since 2020, punished for covering protests against presidential election fraud that gave Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in power. Their prison sentences range from 3 to 15 years, simply for doing their jobs — reporting the news. Hundreds more have fled the country. Yet they continue their work. Why?

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How Sanctions Against Russia Impact Journalism

  • Columbia Journalism Review
  • Lauren Watson

Sanctions targeting Russian propaganda have inadvertently crippled independent journalism. Exiled reporters, battling Kremlin censorship, face funding blockades from Western tech and financial giants, threatening their vital work of delivering uncensored news to Russians.

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Media Freedom in Afghanistan

  • UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) & UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR)

The joint report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) documented 336 cases of human rights violations against media professionals between August 2021 and September 2024.

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The Mechanics of Media Policy Creation in Russia

  • Media & Journalism Research Center
  • Leonardo Ingannamorte

The Media & Journalism Research Center has published a study on Media Regulation, Government and Policy in Russia. It explains the core principles of media regulation in Russia and the various forms of censorship that the Russian political system has introduced and refined over the past decades, profiles several key influencers in the Russian media policy and provides context on the country’s media policy.

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Where Independent Reporting Ends

  • WittenLab Magazine
  • Marius Dragomir

Research by the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) identified four key elements that lead to media capture as part of a matrix designed to study the phenomenon. These elements include control of media regulation, control of public media, use of state funds as a means of media control, and acquisition of private media outlets by businesses linked to the government.

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Misuse of Economic Charges to Silence and Attack the Press

  • World Association of News Publishers
  • Lucinda Jordaan

The autocratic playbook of abusing or introducing economic laws to curtail journalists and newsrooms by attacking their credibility and financial viability is sharply outlined in a new report by WAN-IFRA and the IAPA.

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Exiled Journalist Communities in Germany

  • Körber Stiftung

As global crises, authoritarianism, and threats to press freedom escalate, more journalists are forced to flee their home countries, making independent journalism one of the most dangerous professions today. The recently published study by Körber Stiftung sheds light on the growing scale and challenges of exiled journalism in Germany.

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Russia: What It Takes To Tell The Truth

  • BIMEX

In March 2022, the State Duma introduced new laws penalizing the “discrediting” of the Russian Armed Forces, leading to hefty fines or imprisonment for violations. This crackdown has made independent journalism increasingly perilous in Russia, spurring a mass exodus of independent media professionals. This publication aims to illuminate the realities faced by Russian independent media workers in exile.

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Resisting Repression: Kirill Martynov on the Role of Exiled Journalism

  • The Barents Observer
  • Георгий Чентемиров

In this video-interview, Kirill Martynov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe, discusses the harsh realities exiled Russian media outlets are facing amid escalating repression and censorship. He emphasizes the need for independent journalism and education as tools for resistance against authoritarianism.

WATCH [RU]

Russia: Apple Quietly Deletes Nearly a Hundred VPNs

  • El País
  • Javier G. Cuesta

Apple has removed dozens of apps, even though the Kremlin’s censorship body did not order the move. These services, half-permitted by the government, enable people in Russia to access social networks and independent media.

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Study: A New Phase in the Fight for Press Freedom in Russia

  • JX Fund

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.

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Russia’s War on the Press

  • Women Press Freedom

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.

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Is Civil Society Still Alive in Russia?

  • Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies
  • Stefan Ingvarsson, Ekaterina Kalinina

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.

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