JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

Having previously exposed abuses such as illegal mining and drug trafficking as a reporter for El Universal, Joseph Poliszuk has since led a trailblazing and courageous team as co-founder of Venezuela’s pioneering investigative journalism outlet Armando.info.

Meydan TV is one of the few independent media organisations broadcasting in Azerbaijan. With the newsroom in exile in Berlin, the team focuses on bringing the country’s corruption and sensitive human rights issues to light. Meydan’s editor-in-chief takes you through the newsroom’s darkest days, and how the EU failed to protect its interests.

In 2015, over a million people from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq sought safety in Germany, including journalists. This movement reshaped politics, society, and journalism, raising new challenges. The latest “Bonjourno” podcast episode explores the experiences and challenges of exile journalism in this context.

With all civil liberties stripped away in Nicaragua, independent journalism in exile has become the last stronghold of freedom to investigate and report the truth. Earlier this month, for International Journalists’ Day (September 8), we shared a special feature on Nicaraguan journalism that has resisted and overcome censorship in Nicaragua for more than seven years.

In Kyrgyzstan, authorities are no longer just reacting to stories — they are trying to stop them before they are told, dismantling entire newsrooms and effectively criminalizing journalism. This week, four former employees of Kyrgyzstan’s leading investigative newsroom, Kloop, went on trial in Bishkek, accused of conspiring to “incite mass unrest.”

Six new Berliners from Belarus, Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan, and Syria open up about their journeys of escape, loss, and starting over. In the photo series Berlin Still Lifes, photographer Dzmitry Brushko captures the objects and dishes that connect them to their past and present. No faces are shown — instead, everyday items tell deeply personal stories of memory, identity, and belonging.

In 2018, the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) ushered in an era of reform, freeing exiled media and releasing imprisoned journalists. Yet the hope that these measures promised a renaissance for journalism was short-lived. Since the outbreak of conflict in Tigray in 2020, the environment has sharply deteriorated.

How the “Journalists in Exile” program strengthens press freedom: Nazeeha Saeed explains why independent journalism should not be taken for granted. Nazeeha Saeed has lived in exile since 2016—first in Paris, now in Berlin. In her home country of Bahrain, she could no longer work as a journalist.

In August 2020, Belarus witnessed its largest protests in history, ignited by a disputed presidential election and widespread discontent. Five years later, the regime’s grip remains firm, with President Lukashenko still in power and indepedent journalists and opposition leaders in exile.

In an interview with Roman Gressier, editor of El Faro’s English edition, Lucy Nash explores how the Salvadoran newsroom’s investigations – including explosive gang-leader testimony – shook President Bukele’s narrative, triggered political backlash, and forced dozens of journalists into exile.

In this article, Natalia Belikova argues that Belarusian independent media in exile are vital to Europe’s security, countering authoritarian propaganda and upholding democratic discourse. She urges the EU to provide long-term support, warning that recent funding cuts endanger this essential media ecosystem.

In a personal spotlight for El Faro, journalists Óscar and Carlos Martínez recount their sudden “preventive departures” following explosive reporting on Bukele’s gang ties. Planned as brief, cautious trips, these exits soon turned into forced exile. Read their emotional first-hand account of a reorganized life, halfway across the world.

Is reporting possible while living under persecution? When you don’t know from where you’ll be attacked, or if you will be discredited, threatened, intimidated, or forced into exile? Where the choices are sometimes as stark as choosing jail, silence, or exile?

For fourteen years, the organization operated in secrecy and exile. Team members risked their lives daily, working under bombardment and surveillance, and facing the constant threat of arrest. Three colleagues remain forcibly disappeared to this day — their absence a painful reminder of the price paid for pursuing truth under the former regime.

Iranian authorities have carried out a wave of arrests and multiple executions of people suspected of links to Israeli intelligence agencies, in the wake of the recent war between the two countries. Analysts view these tactics as part of a broader strategy to silence dissent and intimidate exiled media workers.

For many Nicaraguans fleeing the Ortega-Murillo regime, objects carried into exile hold deep emotional value—links to the past and symbols of hope for return. This is the story of an exiled journalist and his collection of keys. He calls himself *Castro, in homage to an influential high school teacher in Managua who suggested he study journalism.

The systematic and relentless persecution orchestrated by the Ortega-Murillo regime has led to the closure, confiscation, and expulsion of hundreds of independent media outlets and journalists from the country. For many, exile has become the only way to escape censorship, threats, and physical attacks – and to continue reporting.

Dissidents who have fled Alexander Lukashenko’s rule in Belarus have spoken of threats being made against them and their relatives at home. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians are estimated to have left their country since the brutal crackdown on widespread opposition protests in 2020, after Lukashenko, 70, claimed victory in presidential elections that were widely condemned as rigged.