Voices across borders: journalism in exile amid rising autocracies
Thu 10 April 2025
09:30 - 10:20
Free
Calculating distance...
As autocracies increasingly suppress free media, exile has now become a long-term phenomenon: a lifeline for journalists committed to truth-telling. This panel will explore the challenges and opportunities faced by journalists forced to operate from abroad, providing critical insights into how they maintain journalistic integrity while navigating threats, censorship, and cultural displacement.
Featuring leading journalists and media advocates, the discussion will explore what challenges exiled journalists face in their new host environments, and how they use digital tools to counter authoritarian narratives and build resilient networks. The panel will also examine the logistical toll of displacement and offer perspectives on the support systems needed to sustain their work. Key questions include:
> As singular autocracies transform into “Autocracy Inc” (Anne Applebaum, 2024), do the democratic host governments face greater threats?
> What role do host countries and international organizations play in fostering press freedom?
> And how can exiled media leverage global solidarity to challenge authoritarian regimes?
This session aims to inspire actionable strategies for defending press freedom, showcasing journalism as a vital pillar of democracy and resistance against authoritarianism - and amplifying the voices of those who refuse to be silenced.
Moderated by Sonja Wimschulte.
Organised in association with Körber-Stiftung.
Modified more than a month ago
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Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo
Il Festival Internazionale del Giornalismo di Perugia è un evento annuale che riunisce professionisti dei media, esperti di comunicazione e appassionati di informazione da tutto il mondo. Si svolge nel centro storico di Perugia e offre conferenze, dibattiti, workshop e opportunità di networking sui temi più rilevanti del giornalismo contemporaneo.
Giornalismo
Pagina tematica del giornalismo
Yavuz Baydar
Yavuz Baydar is a journalist, blogger, and expert on media issues. Until January 2024, he served as the Editor-in-Chief of Ahval News Online, a trilingual independent news platform covering Turkey. A journalist for 45 years, Baydar was one of the co-founders of the Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) in 2013, an initiative dedicated to monitoring Turkey’s media landscape and press freedom. In 2003-2004, he also served as president of the U.S.-based International Organization of News Ombudsmen. Since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, Baydar has lived in exile, in Europe. His opinion pieces over two decades have been published in leading international outlets, including Süddeutsche Zeitung, The New York Times, The Guardian, El País, Svenska Dagbladet, Ta Nea, Le Monde, and Index on Censorship. He has also contributed blogs to The Huffington Post and Al Jazeera, offering analysis on Turkish politics, the Middle East, the Balkans, Europe, U.S.-Turkey relations, human rights, press freedom, and historical issues. Currently, he is a columnist for Svenska Dagbladet’s Culture Edition and a blogger for the French independent news site Mediapart. Baydar was Turkey’s first news ombudsman, beginning at Milliyet daily in 1999, and continued in that role as a public editor until 2014. His critical stance on journalistic integrity and media ethics led to his dismissal twice, a consequence of his outspoken columns on fabricated news and press shortcomings. In 2004, he was a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he researched Islam and Democracy in the Middle East. A decade later, as a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, he authored Newsroom as an Open-Air Prison, an extensive research paper on self-censorship, media ownership corruption, and state repression in Turkish journalism, particularly following the Gezi Park protests. His journalism career has spanned various roles and countries. He worked as a producer and news presenter for Swedish Radio/TV Corporation in Stockholm, served as Scandinavia and the Baltics correspondent for the independent Turkish daily Cumhuriyet (1980-1992), and as producer/presenter at the BBC World Service, London, in the early 1990s. Baydar has received multiple awards recognizing his contributions to press freedom and journalism. In 2014, he was honored with the Special Award of the European Press Prize (EPP) for “excellence in journalism”, as well as the Journalistenpreis, by Die Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, Munich, BRD and the Stories on Umbria Journalism Award in Perugia, Italy. In 2017, UN Watch awarded him the Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award. He also received the Caravella ""Mare Nostrum"" Award from the Journalists of the Mediterranean organization in Puglia, Italy. He studied Informatics, Cybernetics, and Journalism at the University of Stockholm.
Arzu Geybulla
Arzu Geybulla is an Azerbaijani journalist, writer, and human rights advocate. Arzu has contributed to numerous international outlets, including Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, and Open Democracy, where her writing has covered topics ranging from challenges and rights violations in Azerbaijan to regional geopolitics. She is the regional editor for South Caucasus and Turkey at Global Voices and a researcher on Azerbaijan at Human Rights Watch. She has also served as a speaker and panelist at international conferences and forums, sharing insights on media freedom, technology’s impact on civil liberties, and conflict resolution. In 2024, she co-founded Free Voices Collective, an initiative by exiled Azerbaijani journalists, activists, and rights defenders to lead international advocacy efforts focusing on the declining environment of rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan. She continues to manage Azerbaijan Internet Watch, a platform she launched in 2018 that documents and monitors digital information controls and their impact on civil society in Azerbaijan. Arzu also continues her collaboration and affiliation with various international organizations and initiatives focusing on Azerbaijan and beyond on issues such as transnational digital repression, the safety of women journalists online, and platform accountability, to name a few.
Fathi Osman
Fathi Osman is an Eritrean exile journalist and author. He had been in charge of the Arabic language program in the Eritrean exile radio, Radio Erena (2014-2023) in Paris. He contributes to African Arguments and several Arab newspapers. He participated in several conferences about African Exile Journalism (DW 13th Media Forum). Fathi wrote two books on Eritrean politics and activism. He lives in Paris, France.