JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

Reporters Without Borders examines how China is exporting its model of state-controlled journalism and expanding its influence over the global information space. The report documents pressure on independent media abroad, including harassment and transnational repression targeting exiled and diaspora journalists, as well as efforts to recruit, coerce or silence media outlets outside China.

As journalists remain in exile for longer periods, technology is reshaping how they report, reach audiences and sustain their work across borders — while creating new vulnerabilities through surveillance, censorship and cyberattacks. At ISOJ 2026, JX Fund joined experts from IAPA, CPJ and RSF to discuss these opportunities and risks for exiled media.

A series of copyright complaints has led Meta to block the social media accounts of several Azerbaijani independent media outlets, including Abzas Media and Toplum TV. Many operate from abroad after facing repression at home, making social platforms crucial for reaching audiences in Azerbaijan. CPJ and NEMO have condemned the apparent misuse of copyright mechanisms to restrict exiled media.

Crossing a border doesn’t end the threats. Exiled journalists from Afghanistan, Russia, and the Uyghur community describe cyberattacks, disinformation, poisoning attempts, and pressure on family members back home—transnational repression that’s rising fast as exile itself has nearly doubled worldwide in five years.

Three years after being investigated for covering José Rubén Zamora’s trial, former elPeriódico journalists can legally return to Guatemala. But with courts closing the case and little else changed, four remain in exile, saying the state still owes them guarantees, reparations, and an apology before they’ll come home.

Far from home, exiled newsrooms face a daily balancing act. Amu TV and Kashmir Times editors describe how they verify facts without being on the ground, protect sources under surveillance and authoritarian threat, and guard hard-won credibility—choosing to delay stories, embrace anonymity, and admit mistakes rather than risk lives or trust.

Serbia is now the only EU-Balkans country where journalists flee for safety. Columnist Marko Vidojković and military reporter Aleksandar Radić are among six exiled amid death threats, smear campaigns, and state harassment. As Belgrade edges toward EU accession, RSF says Brussels can no longer ignore Serbia’s press freedom crisis.

Natalia Belikova of Press Club Belarus hasn’t returned home since 2019 — not even for her father’s funeral. Since Lukashenko’s 2020 crackdown, over 1,000 journalists fled into exile, facing funding gaps, cyberattacks, and fading ties to audiences back home. She discusses censorship workarounds, ongoing arrests, and what keeps Belarusian exile media going.

Afro-Cuban journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa received the Percy Qoboza Award in Atlanta, defying the Havana regime that forced him into exile in 2021. Now living in Barcelona, separated from family, he linked press freedom to Black struggle, declaring “you cannot silence us” and dedicating the honor to colleagues still resisting inside Cuba.

Turkish journalist Doğan Ertuğrul has lived in exile in Vienna since 2016, running the critical outlet Kronos News. In July 2026, Turkey froze his assets over alleged terror links, hitting his pension too. With elections looming in 2028, Ertuğrul sees deliberate intimidation. RSF demands international solidarity for press freedom in Türkiye.

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.

Journalists usually report the news, not live it. At NEMO’s latest Knowledge Exchange Session, representatives from independent exiled media organizations turned that around, reflecting on their own experience of forced relocation: rebuilding infrastructure, securing digital access, and starting over in unfamiliar countries.

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.

The internet is a haven for journalism in countries where press freedom is endangered. Exiled outlets report from abroad, beyond the reach of domestic regulators and press laws. But no space is truly safe: in recent years autocracies have innovated to promote their agendas online, exploit social media algorithms, and block critical media.

Myanmar Satirical Journalism sits at the center of one of the most dramatic press-freedom reversals documented anywhere on this site: a media landscape that had genuinely opened during the 2011 to 2021 reform period collapsed back into severe restriction within weeks of the February 2021 military coup.

Strong institutions make the Baltic states global leaders in media freedom, while independent local media across the Eastern Partnership face unstable, crisis-driven funding and constrained decision-making power. This article presents a report on media development, looking at three interconnected themes: Funding, local ownership, and adaptation.

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.

Ten years after a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, Turkey’s independent media has been largely dismantled through a combination of mass imprisonment, outlet closures, regulatory punishment, internet censorship and the consolidation of media ownership in pro-government hands. This and more has continued putting pressure on journalists in exile.