JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

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.

Good journalism alone doesn’t pay the bills, says Marius Dragomir of the Media and Journalism Research Center. In this interview, he explains why quality and revenue require different skills, how donor dependence quietly shapes editorial choices, and why small outlets are “captured through starvation” rather than acquisition—plus what funders consistently get wrong.

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.

Since Russia’s crackdown drove over 2,000 journalists into exile, more than 90 outlets now depend on YouTube, Telegram and other Big Tech platforms to reach audiences. This research examines how opaque AI algorithms shape their visibility—and how exiled media, in turn, try to exploit those same algorithmic biases to survive.

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.

Clare Cook and David Lush explore how exiled media managers keep organisations running through repeated forced relocations. Drawing on workshops and interviews with exiled media leaders, they map five stages of instability and apply mixed embeddedness theory to show how support for exiled media can be strengthened.

Nicaraguan journalists who sought refuge in Costa Rica say they are facing surveillance and intimidation linked to the Ortega regime. The reports suggest that repression extends beyond Nicaragua’s borders, undermining Costa Rica’s role as a safe haven and exposing the growing risks of transnational repression for journalists who continue reporting from exile.

A new GIJN feature explores how investigative journalists from Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Georgia collaborate across borders to uncover corruption and environmental crime in the Black Sea region. The story highlights how international partnerships, shared expertise and secure cross-border reporting help sustain accountability journalism under increasing political pressure.

A coalition of human rights organizations warns that Vietnamese authorities are expanding repression beyond national borders, targeting journalists and critics living in Thailand. The cases of exiled journalists Truong Duy Nhat and Duong Van Thai highlight the risks faced by independent reporters abroad, including surveillance, intimidation, detention and threats of forced return.

Exiled journalists often struggle to navigate mental health while facing challenges presented by language barriers, burnout, and even Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Some, also face an identity crisis causing them to lose their professional identity, audiences, and the newsroom communities that shaped their daily lives.

In this article the Iranian writer and journalist Vorya H. Panahi Tazehabad, who lives in exile writes about his own personal experience with persecution, threats, political repression and ongoing safety hazards in exile. The digital age enabled making digital intimidation, monitoring or silencing dissenting voices harder to escape from a distance.

RSF is giving their supported exiled journalist the opportunity to tell their stories in their new blog series Blogreihe home². They write about their lives in between their old and new home, about language, identity, journalistic work and the challenges of a restart. The first edition is written by the Iraqi exiled journalist Shan Sabir living in Germany.

During this Interview, conducted at a panel talk at Exile Media Hub Berlin, as part of jinn’s program, Editor-in-Chief Myint talks about the pratical and ethical realities of reporting on post-coup civil war realities from inside Myanmar and from exile. He mentions topics such as sustaining independent journalism, searching for viable revenue models in displacement and more.

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.

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.