JX Fund – European Fund for Journalism in Exile

Although physical attacks against journalists are the most visible violations of press freedom, economic pressure is also a major, more insidious problem. The economic indicator on the RSF World Press Freedom Index now stands at an unprecedented, critical low as its decline continued in 2025. As a result, the global state of press freedom is now classified as a “difficult situation” for the first time in the history of the Index.

The article by Maria Savushkina reflects on her personal experiences of fleeing Belarus in 2021 to escape arrest and then fleeing Ukraine after the war began. Through these traumatic journeys, she shares her insights on how oppression and war can profoundly change individuals. Savushkina also reflects on the human cost of conflict and the evolving threats posed by drones.

In her article, Mahtab Qolizadeh reflects on the challenges she faces as an exiled Iranian journalist in Berlin. After fleeing Iran to escape imprisonment and torture, she hoped to find freedom and purpose in writing, but instead feels lost and disconnected in her new life. Struggling with isolation and trauma, Qolizadeh grapples with the sense that her freedom lacks meaning, and she is haunted by memories of her imprisonment.

In this special World Press Freedom Day episode of Fellowship Takeaways, a podcast by the Reuters Institute, two exiled journalists speak on covering Russia and Syria from afar. They discuss the challenges of building trust, maintaining sources’ anonymity, the emotional toll of their work and what newsrooms can do better to support journalists in exile.

Protecting journalism in the AI age means adopting it responsibly. This guide is intended as a starting point for ongoing conversations within your organisation on how to use AI while upholding journalistic values—accuracy, fairness, transparency, and accountability. These principles serve as essential pillars for informed communities worldwide, allowing journalism to fulfil its vital role in society.

The Entrepreneurial Journalism Playbook is a practical guide for media leaders to develop a more effective and innovative business mindset. By including real-world case studies from four countries, the Playbook demystifies entrepreneurial journalism, outlines the basics of ‘pitching’ new business ideas and other entrepreneurial tactics, and lays out different funding and financing options, including an investment guide, for media projects.

The Pulitzer Center welcomes proposals using advanced data mining—like machine learning or NLP—to tackle journalistic challenges. This grant encourages radical transparency, including sharing methods, code, ethical considerations, and data limits, so each story can guide other newsrooms on similar projects.

The Pulitzer Center is seeking proposals to advance wide-reaching and relevant journalism on issues impacting communities in Africa, including but not limited to water and sanitation, land degradation and coastal erosion, education, maternal health, and climate resilience. They encourage local journalists to apply.

The Pulitzer Center is seeking applications for their reporting initiative focused on the systems, organizations, and people that destabilize countries, erode democracies, and enable corruption. They value cross-border and collaborative reporting, data-driven projects, and innovative, interdisciplinary approaches. This grant is open to freelance and staff journalists worldwide.

The Pulitzer Center is seeking applications for their reporting initiative focused on AI and surveillance technologies and their impact on communities around the world. They value accountability and data reporting, collaborations, and cross-discipline approaches. Staff and freelance journalists are eligible.

The Pulitzer Center is eager to fund as much in-depth reporting as possible that is as safe as possible for the journalists and touches on a broad range of topics, including possible pathways to peace. Since its earliest days, the Pulitzer Center has supported hundreds of reports on underreported angles of conflicts around the world, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Iraq, Darfur, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and more.

Arzu Geybullayeva examines the rising crisis of journalism in exile, focusing on Azerbaijani reporters forced to flee growing state repression. As global press freedom declines, Azerbaijan stands out as increasingly hostile to independent media. Exiled journalists, many now in Georgia or Europe, face surveillance, threats to loved ones, and isolation from sources.

If Trump shuts down RFE/RL, thousands of exiled journalists could lose their platform, and Russian-speaking audiences may lose a vital independent news source. RFE/RL’s reporting from hubs like Riga offers rare, high-risk journalism in local languages, countering Kremlin propaganda in ways few other outlets can.

When William McCarren talks about press freedom today, he doesn’t speak in abstract terms. The longtime executive director of the National Press Club and now head of its new Press Freedom Center sees a world where increasingly journalists are under siege—imprisoned, exiled, injured, or killed. The Barents Observer this week takes part in a event in Washington DC on defence of free journalism.

Independent media outlets exiled from Myanmar play a vital role in reporting on the civil war to destruction wrought by natural disasters, while influencing the political culture of the resistance. But, as Crisis Group expert Margarite Clarey explains, mounting challenges jeopardise these organisations’ work.

The Burundian media landscape poses immense challenges for journalists in this Central African country. They often receive death threats and work in a virtually permanent state of insecurity. In this article, Jean Sovon speaks with several journalists about the dangerous climate they face – marked by threats, censorship, and exile.

The article examines how Russia’s war in Ukraine has transformed the production of knowledge about the country, focusing on the role of exiled media and scholars. It highlights the ethical tensions between those abroad and those still in Russia, raising concerns about safety, representation, and knowledge extractivism in journalism and academia.

Since Hong Kong’s 2020 National Security Law, hundreds of media workers have gone into exile, founding independent outlets abroad. Global Voices is showcasing three overseas Hong Kong independent media outlets to help readers better understand the resilience of the journalist diaspora in their struggle for press freedom.