JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

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.

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.

JX Fund, with support of The Fix Research and Advisory, has just published the first major cross-country overview of what they call Exiled Independent Media, or EXIM. Across eight countries studied in depth, researchers identified at least 280 verified outlets, although the real number is almost certainly much higher.

Exiled independent media face growing pressure to survive financially and structurally in an increasingly unstable global news ecosystem. This essay revisits lessons from the 1970s media landscape to explore how journalism can adapt to fragmentation, platform dependency and shrinking resources, offering reflections on sustainability models for exile outlets today.

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.

Press freedom is under unprecedented global pressure — and journalists are responding by building networks across borders. At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, the taz panterstiftung launched its new panternetwork, uniting 500 journalists worldwide. Collaboration, they agree, is no longer optional: it’s the future of independent journalism.

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.

Exiled Rohingya journalist Mohamed Husein reports on genocide, displacement and repression in Myanmar. In this Tagesspiegel essay, he describes the risks of telling the truth—from documenting atrocities in Rakhine State to continuing his work from exile in Germany.

In the aftermath of Myanmar’s February 2021 military takeover, independent journalist Linn soon fell foul of the regime’s crackdown on free expression. Having overthrown the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, ending a decade of partial civilian rule, the junta – known as the Tatmadaw – quickly moved to clamp down on the media.

Turkey is slipping fast down the Reporters without Borders (RSF) ‘s World Press Freedom Index. The country is now ranked 159th out of 180. But while some journalists languish in prison, many more, have been forced to leave the country. Their destinations range from Greece and Switzerland to other European countries, as well as neighbouring regions such as Armenia and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Founded in 2016 by young civil society members in Azerbaijan, Abzas Media was created to report on issues that are often ignored or suppressed in state-controlled media, including corruption, misuse of public resources, and human rights violations. Independent journalism in the country has been put under severe pressure, yet Abzas Media has continued reporting from exile, driven by the belief that independent journalism is as essential as ever.

Foreign intelligence agencies are using spyware in Germany to target primarily activists and journalists critical of authoritarian governments, but increasingly also members of parliament like Daniel Freund. Beyond infringing on the individual fundamental rights of affected individuals, they thereby also threaten civil society, freedom of the press, and democracy.

This article explains how international journalism festivals have become important spaces for exiled journalists to connect, collaborate, and continue their work despite repression in their home countries. It argues that exile journalism is growing due to increasing threats to press freedom, while also creating new opportunities for global reach and cross-border reporting.