JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

In “Navigating Digital Sovereignty: A Comparative Analysis of Internet Regulation in Russia and China,” the researchers delve into the intricate web of policies and technologies that define how two global powers control and manage their digital landscapes. This exploration sheds light on the Sovereign Internet Law of Russia and the Great Firewall of China, two landmark strategies aimed at asserting digital sovereignty.

The role of journalism in authoritarian and conflict-affected regions remains as crucial as it has ever been. While technological advances provide new opportunities for newsgathering, there are still plenty of pitfalls for those who are trying to convey the truth.

After the Taliban took power, the journalist Hamed fled Afghanistan with his family – via a German government admission program. The government promised to take in 1,000 particularly vulnerable people, such as journalists, every month. In reality, only a fraction make it.

The Taliban’s new law on the “Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” bans journalists from publishing or broadcasting content the de facto government believes violates Sharia law or insults Muslims. Article 17 describes several restrictions on the media, including a ban on publishing or broadcasting images of living people and animals which the Taliban consider unislamic.

Afghan media in exile remain economically fragile, even though they are a widely followed source of information, according to a report by the think tank for media professionals, The Fix, and the support fund for journalism in exile, JX Fund, created in 2022 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and its partners.

Women Press Freedom identifies transnational repression as a significant threat to journalists who have fled authoritarian regimes, highlighting the increased use of tactics like surveillance, harassment, and violence to silence dissent beyond national borders. According to the report, 50% of exiled women journalists were targeted through transnational repression reside in the EU.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has launched a new online training course for exiled journalists, in partnership with the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). The free e-learning course, which covers areas like UK media law, public affairs, writing styles and an introduction to the UK media industry, will help journalists forced to relocate to continue reporting.

How he exiled Afghans of Amu TV are holding the Taliban to account — from 7,000 miles away. Even though it operates abroad—or perhaps because it operates abroad—Amu TV is one of the most effective chroniclers of life under Taliban rule. The Atlantic reporter Cora Engelbrecht paid a visit to their newsroom.

It is estimated that, nearly 2000 journalists have left Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in 2021. Many sought asylum in Europe and North America, while others settled in Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries. Despite severe challenges Afghan reporters in exile remain committed to keeping the flow of independent news from their homeland alive.

Siyar Sirat is a journalist with experience in various media organizations in Afghanistan. He has been living in exile for three years. For Amu TV, he wrote down how the day the Taleban took power in Kabul is haunting him.

In this article Emma Löfgren, editor at The Local and contributor at The Fix, rounds up some of the insights she learned when interviewing five leading experts for audience building.

Finding funding for your journalism organization can be a daunting responsibility — especially if your organization does not have someone experienced in fundraising. The process is similar to investigative journalism: first, you must research funding sources, then prepare your story, and write a compelling narrative that makes the reader understand the importance of your work — and the need to fund it.

Newsletters are an effective way to establish a direct contact with your audience, unmitigated by the whims of social media algorithms. For individual journalists, newsletters can be a profitable option to share their work with their readers. But how?

From Afghanistan and Russia, to Venezuela, Eritrea and beyond, journalists globally have fled – and continue to flee – threats to their lives and livelihoods under authoritarian regimes. Entire newsrooms in these contexts, too, have shuttered operations to avoid imminent danger to their employees and financial ruin.

This report covers the period from 2021 to 2023, during which almost 70% of all attacks on media workers in Russia have been recorded since monitoring began in 2017. The attacks of the Russian authorities on journalists and bloggers over the past three years have taken on an unprecedented scale.

Threats, repression, conflict, and unrest: across the world, these and other factors are pushing journalists into exile in record numbers. In a striking development, exiled or soon-to-be exiled journalists now make up more than half of the people CPJ assists. While exile is a global issue, three countries — Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan — stand out as places from which journalists flee only to face further insecurity. Below, find case studies on each country.