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Expelled from China

  • NYT
  • Katrin Bennhold

“China is one of the biggest and most complex stories in the world. That’s why The New York Times has always tried to have correspondents on the ground who can get under the surface and report out the nuances. But the Chinese authorities have long been wary of foreign journalists. They restrict their access, surveil their movements and sometimes expel them outright.”

CONFIDENCIAL: 30 Years of Independent Journalism

  • Confidencial 30
  • Carlos F. Chamorro

Nicaraguan independent outlet CONFIDENCIAL marks three decades of investigative journalism under growing repression. Founder and editor Carlos F. Chamorro reflects on newsroom raids, forced exile and the transformation of the outlet into a transnational newsroom. The story shows how exiled journalists adapt their work, maintain audience trust and continue reporting despite censorship.

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Meydan TV and AbzasMedia Win the “Free Media Pioneer” Award

  • NEMO

Exiled Azerbaijani media outlets Meydan TV and AbzasMedia have won the 2026 Free Media Pioneer Award, a recognition presented by the International Press Institute (IPI) and International Media Support (IMS) to organizations advancing independent journalism and the free flow of information. The award comes at a time of unprecedented pressure on independent media in Azerbaijan.

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Silence, the Mechanism Making Authoritarianism Possible

  • Civicus Lens
  • Zineb Haddaji

CIVICUS discusses the repression of press freedom in Djibouti with Zineb Haddaji, an exiled independent journalist who covers Djibouti and the Horn of Africa for international outlets and documents freedom of expression violations. Zineb is the founder of ZoomIn, a weekly TikTok series on daily life and systemic issues in Djibouti.

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Serbian Journalists in Exile Due to Repression by the Authorities

  • KoSSev

ANEM announced that four journalists were forced to leave Serbia due to, as it states, repression by the authorities, targeting campaigns and threatened security. The reason for ANEM’s new warning was the departure of military analyst and Nedeljnik contributor Radić, who left the country after pro-government media published footage of him being tracked.

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Russian Independent Journalists Fear MAX App Hindering Reporting

  • CPJ
  • Lamiya Adilgizi

As Russian authorities tighten the screw on popular messaging app Telegram and promote a state-backed “super app” that observers say could act as a surveillance tool, independent journalists and media outlets inside and outside Russia say it will become more difficult to report stories securely and stay connected to audiences.

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An Ecosystem of Truth: Exiled Russian Independent Media

  • CEPA
  • M. Komin, E. Roshchin

Information control has long been central to the Kremlin. Since Vladimir Putin took power, independent journalism has faced growing repression, accelerated after the Kursk submarine disaster (2000), the Moscow theater siege (2002), and the Beslan school hostage crisis (2004). Critical outlets were punished, steadily eroding Russia’s independent media.

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Finland Lacks Support For Exiled Journalists

  • IPI
  • Agnes Jakobson

Despite its persistently strong domestic record on press freedom and status as a global frontrunner in fostering free media, Finland comes up short in providing support for exiled journalists at home or abroad in recent years, according to the findings of a new report commissioned by eight Finnish freedom of expression organisations, including the IPI Finland National Committee.

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Exile of Journalists is on the Rise in Latin America

  • LatAm Journalism Review
  • Alianza de Medios Mx

RELPEX supports 457 professionals in exile or forced displacement and reports that 60% of the network’s journalists no longer work in journalism due to legal barriers or a lack of employment. A report by RSF indicates that the number of countries from which journalists go into exile has doubled in five years.

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Exiled Hong Kong Journalists Launch Pulse HK

  • RSF

A group of Hong Kong journalists forced into exile has launched Pulse HK, an independent online media outlet publishing in Chinese. The platform aims to fill the void left by the forced shutdown of independent Hong Kong media outlets, including Apple Daily five years ago. RSF spoke with Shirley Leung, co-founder of the platform.

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Journalists Forced Into Exile Rise Sharply Worldwide

  • The Medialine
  • Arshad Mehmood

Nearly 1,500 journalists from at least 65 countries have received emergency support from Reporters Without Borders after being forced into exile between 2021 and 2025, due to threats of imprisonment and to their lives. This is shown by the data released June 19 ahead of World Refugee Day. Afghanistan accounted for almost half the cases.

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Russian Independent Media Navigate Throttling & Internet Shutdowns

  • IPI
  • Agnes Jakobson

For weeks in the spring of 2026, residents of Moscow experienced major disruption as mobile internet shutdowns which had earlier affected several Russian regions finally reached the capital. While the partial shutdowns were softened in the following weeks, internet users across Russia continued to experience serious difficulties accessing most websites…

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The Exiled Journalist Leading Iran’s Anti-Hijab Movement

  • Streamline

Operating from exile in New York City, Masoumeh Alinejad-Ghomikolayi has transformed her personal rebellion against the Islamic Republic’s strict dress codes into a global human rights phenomenon. Through her prime-time television program “Tablet” on the VOA Persian network, Alinejad has become a central node in the resistance against compulsory hijab laws in Iran

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Is Myanmar’s Exiled Media Surviving the Brutal Funding Crisis?

  • Reuters Institute
  • Katerina Voutsina

In the “newsroom-house” where journalists from the CJ Platform live and work, Min Thu Win Htut, the outlet’s founder, often finds it impossible to sleep. “Around 23:00, when I stop working, it feels like the future goes dark,” Min Thu said. “It’s like I’ve arrived at a future where I don’t know what to do next. This happens almost every night.”

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Putin is Increasingly Targeting Russians Living in Exile

  • SRF
  • Elena Servettaz

The Kremlin is using legal means to go after its critics everywherem, even in Switzerland.
Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the number of NGOs, media outlets, and dissidents outside Russia who have come under the Kremlin’s scrutiny has been rising, and is expected to reach another record high this year.

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Why Russia’s Exiled Media is Unwittingly Helping the Kremlin

  • Medium
  • Stripper

Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, many independent Russian journalists and opposition politicians fled abroad, rebuilding their channels. This article argues that, operating from exile, they have fallen into a trap: creating great content, but the Kremlin controls it. They must shift to a radical new approach, teaching citizens inside Russia how to safely test reality.

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Inside Rwanda’s Campaign to Silence Independent Journalism

  • Reuters Institute
  • Maurice Oniang’o

In January 2023, Johnn Williams Ntwali, an investigative independent journalist, died in an incident that the police described as a car accident. Colleagues and advocates for press freedom have questioned the circumstances of his death and pointed to the tightening of the state’s “invisible red lines” as well as the warning signs that had become increasingly clear by 2022.

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Will to Freedom Despite Totalitarian Repression & Bleak Prospects

  • Friedrich Neumann Stiftung
  • Peter Cichon

Journalists in exile clearly view the persecution in Russia as a form of totalitarian repression directed against any opposition to the war or criticism of the Kremlin. The Censorship is being tightened further and free access to the internet is being restricted, aiming at intimidating people further ahead of the upcoming elections and to suppress any sign of social resistance.

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