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A UK court’s conviction of two Chinese spies who tracked Hong Kong exiles shows how far China is prepared to go to suppress criticism beyond its borders. Transnational repression against the Hong Kong diaspora encompasses bounties on exiled activists, surveillance, financial harassment and criminalisation of families in Hong Kong.
RSF condemns the jamming of the radio frequency 15.5 MHz, which is used to broadcast independent news content in Persian to Iran. Launched with RFPI, this shortwave service allows the Iranian population to access reliable information — its broadcasting content is produced by the news platform IranWire — despite severe restrictions on the media and communications.
A Tunisian court has sentenced the prominent, exiled journalist Khaoula Boukrim in absentia to four years in prison under the 2022 cybercrime Decree‑Law 54, part of a broader crackdown on dissent and independent media under President Kais Saied. This shows a clear crackdown on journalists and free speech in Tunisia. You can find more about the case here.
Research has long told us that journalists covering conflict experience rates of PTSD comparable to frontline soldiers. What it hasn’t been addressed as much is what happens to the people who manage them – making the calls, absorbing the consequences – the editors. That conversation finally took centre stage at the World News Media Congress last week.
Iran has introduced new restrictions on international news organizations operating inside the country, requiring local content providers and media partners to limit redistribution of material to foreign Persian-language broadcasters. The directive reportedly targets the flow of news content between domestic sources and Persian-language media outlets operating from abroad.
Journalists working in exile have to cope with a complex and unique mix of trauma and stress that needs resilience and support in order to manage and overcome.
Every category of trauma identified in journalism practice—primary, secondary, operational, and cultural—can also appear in exile journalism. However, that is not everything…
Documenting conflict has become increasingly difficult. Journalists face harassment, surveillance, misinformation campaigns and constant threats to their safety. “Being in exile is not synonymous with safety,” Zakaria says. “Intimidation takes place online in the form of harassment campaigns, digital threats, attempts at surveillance, disinformation and attacks on credibility and personal safety.”
Rezaian is providing training and support to exiled media as part of a Washington Post program. He argued that exiled media, including creator journalists, should be an integral part of the mainstream media ecosystem. “We have to stop looking at these people as a charity case. This is an asset, this is a resource,” he said.
Transnational repression doesn’t just work through direct attacks. It also works by slowly making your life more complicated. By wearing you down. By forcing you to be constantly on guard. By making you perceive even everyday situations differently. An unknown caller. A message. Someone who suddenly asks too many questions.
The future of Russian non-governmental media, such as for Meduza and Mediazona, is uncertain as Russian media-in-exile fights against receding revenue streams, the collapse of its audience, and the declining morale of its journalists. Mediazona has lost half of its subscribers since the start of the war. However, Mediazona’s audience increased during the 2023 attempted coup.
When journalist Olga Churakova was declared a “foreign agent” by her own government, she had to rebuild her life in exile. She found a new sense of belonging in a community of anonymous podcast listeners. In this piece, Churakova shares with DW Akademie her story.
Since the Iran war started late February, the CPJ has documented a press crackdown across the Gulf, and tracked unpublicized cases of arrest, legal and financial actions against journalists and their media outlets. The escalation represents a significant and underreported threat to press freedom in the Gulf countries where media freedoms were already severely curtailed.
Exile is no guarantee of safety for journalists fleeing authoritarian regimes. Experts and a UN Special Rapporteur warn that states increasingly misuse Interpol mechanisms — including Red Notices and Travel Document Alerts — to harass, restrict, and pressure regime critics abroad, even those granted asylum. Social media platforms, they add, offer far too little protection.
Five years into Myanmar’s civil war, the journalists covering it are running out of money. After the 2021 coup wiped out domestic revenue, exiled newsrooms in Thailand became dependent on foreign aid — now slashed. Today, founders drive taxis, reporters run food stalls, and a million views on Facebook earns less than $50. A crisis is quietly silencing independent coverage of one of Asia’s bloodiest conflicts.
Russia is increasingly branding journalists as “terrorists.” In October 2025, the state labeled Dozhd TV’s editor-in-chief a terrorist; weeks later, two more exiled media figures joined a blacklist alongside ISIS and Navalny’s organization. They are not alone — at least 60 media workers now appear on Russia’s “Terrorist and Extremist” list.
Press freedom experts and a UN special rapporteur have warned that authoritarian governments continue to misuse Interpol mechanisms to target journalists living in exile, despite reforms aimed at preventing politically motivated cases. Several experts point to alleged abuses of Interpol mechanisms, particularly Red Notices and travel document alerts, which they said can severely restrict journalists’ movement and daily lives.
Freedom for Eurasia strongly condemns the defamation lawsuit brought by Gadzhi Gadzhiev against Natalia Sadykova before the courts of Ukraine — the country where Sadykova lives in exile and where her husband was assassinated.
Hong Kong’s government on Friday slammed foreign media and press freedom groups, rejecting claims of a crackdown on press freedom as “slander” after jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai was awarded a free speech prize in Germany. Press freedom in the city has sharply declined since a 2020 National Security Law clamped down on dissent.