JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

What does it take to address the funding needs of public interest media with locally anchored solutions? Public interest media remains an essential pillar of democratic societies. Ensuring its future will require funding systems that are more diverse, more resilient, and more locally rooted than before. This report provides valuable insights into what it takes to begin building those systems.

In 2025, Azerbaijani authorities imposed restrictions on international organizations and foreign media, suspending some UN-affiliated entities and revoking media accreditations. While framed as protecting national interests and sovereignty, observers argue these measures further undermine transparency and accountability.

Reporters Without Borders investigates how the Chinese state’s global media strategy aims to extend control over international information and narratives, from expanding state broadcasters abroad to influencing foreign media and exporting censorship models. The report warns this push could threaten independent journalism and press freedom worldwide.

A new survey by the Belarusian Association of Journalists finds that media workers released from prosecution face long‑term challenges even after gaining freedom. Beyond basic needs like housing, medical care and legal paperwork, many seek professional reintegration – from freelance work to training – as they rebuild careers amid exile and uncertainty.

A new GFMD report maps 326 media assistance and journalism support programmes across Sub‑Saharan Africa, revealing uneven funding flows, gaps in journalist safety and digital rights support, and heavy focus on short‑term grants. Despite expanding commercial media markets, donor support remains marginal and misaligned with structural challenges facing independent media.

This The Economist briefing shows how democratic governments are increasingly adopting autocratic‑style tactics to restrict journalism without overt censorship – from legal and economic pressures to demonizing critical media. It highlights a troubling global decline in press freedom as democracies erode protections that once safeguarded independent reporting.

OVD‑Info’s 2025 overview documents political repression across Russia, including arrests, censorship, and restrictions targeting journalists, activists, and independent voices. While most incidents occur inside the country, the report illustrates how sustained pressure, surveillance, and legal crackdowns are forcing many media practitioners into exile, highlighting the growing risks for free reporting.

A trilingual ebook maps the state of journalism across 11 Latin American countries, based on surveys with more than 4,000 reporters. It documents safety threats, economic precarity, political pressure and gender disparities, while showing journalists’ professional autonomy and resilience in defending democratic reporting amid hostile environments.

A new special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows that around the world, governments continue to imprison journalists at unprecedented levels in 2025, with many facing brutal detention conditions. The sustained threat of incarceration has contributed to rising numbers of journalists fleeing into exile to continue their work safely.

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is releasing a new report “Ending the Silence on Online Harassment of Journalists”. Authored by journalist and tech policy advisor Elodie Vialle, the report provides an overview of the widespread phenomenon that is online harassment targeting journalists, whose normalisation makes it harder to address.

Amid rising global repression and shrinking donor support, understanding how exile media remain viable, independent, and impactful is increasingly urgent. The study identifies key factors that enable media organizations to adapt, survive, and continue serving their communities from abroad. It also offers practical recommendations for exile media, media development actors, donors, and policymakers.

This research explores the gender and ethnicity-based challenges faced by Kurdish female journalists, focusing on their professional experiences in Turkey and in exile.

In an increasingly hostile global environment for independent journalism, journalists under severe political pressure (JUSPP) represent the most vulnerable segment of the media landscape in the OSCE region. In the context of this report, JUSPP are defined as journalists and other media professionals who face systematic threats and persecution from state or non-state actors due to their reporting and dissemination of information.

This Monitoring Report takes stock of the press freedom situation in 36 EU Member States and candidate countries during the first six months of 2025. Between January and June, the Mapping Media Freedom database documented 709 press freedom violations, affecting 1249 media workers or entities.

The report examines how China is exporting its model of internet control via Geedge Networks, a company tied to the Mesalab lab. Geedge supplies surveillance and censorship tools to countries like Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Myanmar, enabling real-time monitoring and traffic control. Leaked documents reveal how these systems mirror China’s Great Firewall and are used both domestically (e.g., Xinjiang) and abroad.

The Human Rights Watch’ report, “Disrupted, Throttled, and Blocked: State Censorship, Control, and Increasing Isolation of Internet Users in Russia,” documents the impact of the government’s increasing technological capacities and control over the country’s internet infrastructure.

Authoritarianism is on the rise globally – with far-reaching consequences. More and more journalists are forced to leave their countries in order to continue their work. At the same time, states undergoing autocratisation – where once-democratic systems become increasingly authoritarian, or authoritarian regimes descend fully into autocracy – are extending their repressive tactics beyond their own borders.

The Global Forum for Media Development’s (GFMD) Mapping of media assistance and journalism support programmes in Asia, Pacific and Oceania region is a timely data-based analysis of media assistance in the Asia region between 2020-2024. It will be an important resource for stakeholders — donors, international NGOs, local civil society organisations, media, and journalists — to assess donor-based funding in the region.