JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

Her investigations took her to the most dangerous places in Russia: A conversation with journalist Elena Kostyuchenko about responsibility, guilt, and her toxic relationship with her country.

The team of the revolutionary newspaper Enab Baladi has returned to Syria. Why it is important to show a presence on the ground now is explained by co-founder Kholoud Helmi.

On a typical evening in the heart of Paris, Taha Siddiqui can be found at his bar, greeting customers and pouring drinks. During busy nights, he’s organizing events there, with an Afghan poet reading her work, anti-war Russian musicians in a punk band, or a director sharing their documentary — all, like him, finding refuge in France. But long before he became a bar owner, Siddiqui was one of Pakistan’s most high-profile investigative journalists, determined to expose corruption and government abuses. In 2018, he fled to Paris, where he has lived in exile ever since.

The main association monitoring attacks on journalists in El Salvador has become the latest victim of the country’s controversial Foreign Agents Law. The Salvadoran Journalists Association (APES, for its acronym in Spanish) announced on Oct. 1 that it will go into exile as a result of the law, which requires organizations receiving foreign funds to register with the government and levies large fines for those who don’t comply.

Defending trustworthy news means knowing how to counter the propaganda tactics that oppose reliable reporting to further ideological goals. To this end, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has published a new report compiling all the content from The Propaganda Monitor, a website dedicated to exposing the way propaganda and disinformation operate so they can be tackled.

On September 22, the Václav Havel Library hosted a discussion titled “How to Run Media from Exile and Remain Relevant in Your Country – The Story of Mizzima and Myanmar’s Independent Media.” The event brought together Soe Myint, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Mizzima, Toe Zaw Latt, General Secretary of the Independent Press Council of Myanmar, and No No Lin, Deputy Director of Mizzima Media.

Article on how intergovernmental organisations address the challenges faced by journalists in exile, highlighting threats like transnational repression, gaps in legal protection, and emerging support mechanisms. The United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, adopted in 2012, does not even mention journalists in exile.

A new Russian law – which came into effect in September – punishes online searches for what the government labels ‘extremist content’. But while the Kremlin has published a list of more than 5,000 banned websites, there’s still little clarity surrounding the law’s implementation and what makes the designated content ‘extremist’.

The removal from the air of a second American comedian since President Donald Trump was elected in the United States should send chills down the spine of every journalist who worked in Moscow in the early 2000s. That was how President Vladimir Putin began consolidating his power — by attacking mainstream media, starting with television and, notably, TV comedians.

Several years ago, the Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui believed his greatest risk was being killed by his country’s military. Things have changed. “Now the threat is just a drunk person,” he says lightly, “which is easier to manage.” It’s a Friday evening in July in Paris, and Siddiqui’s bar, The Dissident Club, is about to open.

Journalist Hassan Ahmed Berkia hasn’t returned to Sudan since the start of the civil war pitting the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Hassan was on a visit in the United Arab Emirates when the war broke out on April 15, 2023.

Conversation with Galina Timchenko and Ivan Kolpakov, co-founders of Meduza, CEO and editor-in-chief respectively. Meduza is one of the most important independent media outlets outside of Russia, about Russia, and for Russia, published in Russian and in English.

Galina Timchenko and Ivan Kolpakov from the exile outlet Meduza describe their struggle to keep the independent media platform alive amid heavy internet blocks in Russia and growing financial pressure. Timchenko calls it a “war of attrition” waged by the Kremlin against free media.

Having previously exposed abuses such as illegal mining and drug trafficking as a reporter for El Universal, Joseph Poliszuk has since led a trailblazing and courageous team as co-founder of Venezuela’s pioneering investigative journalism outlet Armando.info.

Meydan TV is one of the few independent media organisations broadcasting in Azerbaijan. With the newsroom in exile in Berlin, the team focuses on bringing the country’s corruption and sensitive human rights issues to light. Meydan’s editor-in-chief takes you through the newsroom’s darkest days, and how the EU failed to protect its interests.

In an era when traditional journalism revenues are dwindling, many exiled media outlets are rediscovering the pedagogical power of their craft — and transforming it into educational products with financial potential.

In 2015, over a million people from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq sought safety in Germany, including journalists. This movement reshaped politics, society, and journalism, raising new challenges. The latest “Bonjourno” podcast episode explores the experiences and challenges of exile journalism in this context.

With all civil liberties stripped away in Nicaragua, independent journalism in exile has become the last stronghold of freedom to investigate and report the truth. Earlier this month, for International Journalists’ Day (September 8), we shared a special feature on Nicaraguan journalism that has resisted and overcome censorship in Nicaragua for more than seven years.