JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

The Voices Awards is an international competition rewarding innovative ideas and changemakers in the fields of journalism and media freedom, which awards 25 projects with €1,200. This amount is intended to cover both the prize money and the necessary travel and accommodation expenses for the winner to attend the Voices Festival in November, where the winners will be presented.

The Invisible Life grant programme will form part of Journalismfund’s Environmental Investigative Journalism Grant programme, to raise awareness, increase transparency and promote well-informed public debate on food and sustainability by supporting journalists. The focus is on the lives and welfare of farmed animals.

Two separate opportunities are available: you may apply for a grant (which includes participation in the event if selected), or apply to attend as a participant (call for participation will be open from 6 July to 1 September 2026). Separate applications are required. Grant recipients will automatically be registered to attend the event in Strasbourg on 9–10 November.

The Fund for Investigative Journalism provides grants and other support for reporters to produce high-quality, unbiased, nonpartisan investigative stories that have an impact. Freelance journalists, staff reporters and media outlets are eligible for grants, and their investigations can be for print, online or broadcast stories, books, documentaries or podcasts.

Coffee in the morning, fear by afternoon: an Afghan journalist works undercover for an exiled media outlet, dreading every knock at the gate. After interviewing a woman with a disability about domestic violence, she halts publication — fearing surveillance cameras could expose her identity.

At Belarus’s New Belarus conference, Media IQ’s Pavliuk Bykouski presented Press Club Belarus data (2025–26) on exiled independent media: 133 accounts across 13 newsrooms, views growing from 280M to 448M, and 31.9% of Belarusians reporting contact with independent media. The article examines what the data shows — and where it falls short.

In this podcast episode from taz Panter Stiftung’s “Freie Rede” series, jurist and writer Maxim Znak, journalist and photographer Sergei Balai, and journalist Alena discuss a law forcing exiled Belarusians to return home to renew passports—risking arrest if they do, or losing valid ID if they don’t—and its impact on those who fled after the 2020 protests.

Amu TV was born out of the collapse of Afghanistan’s media landscape, and is one of the most influential exiled media outlets serving Afghanistan today. By broadcasting via satellite from the US, the channel has bypassed Taliban censorship and reached millions of viewers inside the country, offering a rare space for uncensored news, political debate, entertainment, and more.

In a series of workshops, exiled journalists now living in the UK told how all faced significant barriers to continuing their careers. Many struggled to gain a foothold in the UK media industry, so the Rory Peck Trust is partnering with City St George’s, University of London, to enable one journalist-in-exile to complete an M.A. in International Journalism.

When an autocracy persecutes, scilences, intimidates its critics outside the country, it is referred to as transnational repression. The topic has gained prominance in recent years, as dissidents from russia and belarus have increasingly sought refuge in the EU. But regimes suppress not only activities inside their own borders, but also try to pressure ones in exile.

Websites of at least six exiled Belarusian news outlets and one journalists’ association, including Zerkalo and Reform.news, have been targeted since March by DDoS attacks, which aim to overwhelm websites with floods of internet traffic. The targeted media sites were all effectively banned from operating in Belarus after authorities labeled them “extremist” groups.

In this podcast episode of Booda Media’s “Fasl-e-Digher” program, Lina Rozbeh, a renowned Afghan poet, writer and journalists talks about women, migration, war, identity, freedom, the Taliban and the current situation and future of Afghanistan. Moreover, she discusses her experience in media and literature, the fate of women, the role of intellectuals and the responsibility of media.

The Pulitzer Center seeks applications for enterprise and underreported stories about global health inequities and challenges. They are interested in ambitious projects about systemic barriers to all sorts of care, as well as promising research, treatment advances, or emerging health threats that merit investigation and more.

This opportunity is open to all newsrooms and independent journalists worldwide. They value data, investigative, and accountability journalism projects that tackle systemic issues and hold to account powerful local figures. You decide what underreported stories your community needs to engage with, and they support that reporting and champion it.

The Pulitzer Center encourages proposals that push the envelope in data collection and analysis and make use of advanced data mining techniques, such as machine learning. They seek compelling data-driven storytelling, based on original data collection and analysis and strong visuals, that has the potential to shape public discourse and hold the powerful accountable.

The Plus Hub is a shared services initiative from ICFJ+ that gives news providers access to shared, enterprise-level technical support and services they can’t afford on their own. Their goal is to provide critical infrastructure for civic intelligence. If your media organisation is interested in receiving digital protection, apply here.

A number of journalists in Afghanistan say the process of reporting has become increasingly difficult. They say they live under constant fear of surveillance, arrest, and pressure by the Taliban. According to these journalists, working with exile media outlets is considered a crime by the Taliban, and journalists themselves are treated as criminals.

In Belarus, remembering has become political. Exiled journalist Olga Bubich describes how documenting grief and protest can lead to arrest, as authorities tightly control both history and the present. Her Tagesspiegel essay explores a struggle over memory, truth, and who gets to record reality.