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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.
The International Center for Journalists has named Cuban exiled journalist and El Toque co-founder José J. Nieves a recipient of its 2026 Knight International Journalism Award. Forced to leave Cuba in 2022, Nieves has continued reporting on the island from abroad, documenting repression and amplifying voices silenced at home.
World Refugee Day draws attention to journalists who have been forced to flee their home countries due to threats, conflict, or repression. While exile is now recognized as a growing reality for journalists worldwide, the experiences of journalists CPJ supported last year reflect the reality that relocation does not necessarily bring safety.
The CPJ newletter sent out on the June 17, 2026 talks about current media developments in Latin America, such as threats and intimidations stopping Peruvian journalists from working, imprisonment of two Mexican Journalists in San Luis Potosí on allegations of deliberately and illegally manipulating a person’s digital identity and more.
Exile journalists in Europe are not safe from their authoritarian countries of origin: dictatorships persecute, threaten media workers critical of the regime beyond their own borders, even in states that are supposed to offer them protection. The EP adopted a resolution on transnational repression in the plenary on Tuesday, to which RSF contributed civil society expertise.
Today, the IPI and IMS are proud to announce this year’s recipients of the World Press Freedom Hero and Free Media Pioneer awards, who together demonstrate remarkable courage, ingenuity, and resilience amid an increasingly challenging environment for press freedom and independent journalism around the world.
As the media battle expands between independent media and the Myanmar junta’s heavily funded and well-organized “disinformation” and “propaganda” campaign, by coup maker Min Aung Hlaing’ aimed at further cementing their grip with elections coming up. The independent media houses are arguably winning but struggling due to lack of funds.
Azerbaijani authorities are prosecuting critics in exile, often based on social media posts and online commentary, Human Rights Watch said today. Those targeted, often convicted in absentia with long sentences, are at risk of extradition, detention during travel, and other forms of cross-border pressure.
RSF welcomes the court ruling on 10 June in the trial concerning the attempted assassination of Azerbaijani blogger Mahammad Mirzali. By handing down sentences of up to 30 years in prison, the French justice system has sent a clear message: transnational repression carried out by authoritarian regimes on European soil will not go unpunished.
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.
A new Human Rights Myanmar report, released in May in partnership with the IPCM, warns that major digital platforms failed to protect Myanmar’s independent media during the junta’s 2025-26 elections, enabling censorship, threats, and financial exclusion against exile-based journalism. It describes the polls as a “sham election”.
Journalists who have fled authoritarian regimes and sought refuge in Germany are not automatically safe there either: an Egyptian journalist is attacked on a public street in Germany by a fellow Egyptian. A Russian reporter in Berlin is believed to have been the target of a poisoning attack. The family of an Iranian journalist is threatened because of his work in exile.
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.”