About
Thousands of journalists worldwide are forced to operate in exile due to political restrictions and repressions in their home countries.
Most independent media in Russia were forced to close or fled in the face of increasingly harsh restrictions, which coincided with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Meanwhile the majority of Belarusian media left Belarus following a clampdown against pro-democracy protests in 2020.
This programme helps to ensure that these outlets can continue delivering high-quality, consistent coverage of relevant issues.
Overview
A key pillar of our work in building resilience against evolving threats to media freedom and safeguarding the future of the profession is using our combined media and legal interventions to offer a range of capacity-building and sustainability programmes and services to support exiled journalists from all over the world.
This programme supports several media outlets established in Europe by Russian and Belarusian journalists facing persecution in their home countries for their commitment to impartial and independent reporting. We combine training, mentorship and legal assistance to ensure exiled media can operate in new countries and comply with unfamiliar legislation. We also provide access to long-term, bespoke business planning consultancy.
This forms part of our wider work to support independent media in Central and Eastern Europe.
Key highlights
We provide access to free, tailored legal support in the relevant jurisdictions, provided by leading international and local lawyers who help to navigate through local legislations and to address legal risks. We also provide access to legal mentors for the whole duration of the programme, who can identify pressing legal needs and support the media outlets in complying with local regulatory requirements.
We facilitate access to leading newswire and digital solutions to support editorial output and newsroom management.
Our strategic and business planning consultancy supports media outlets to develop and implement their vision for growth and development. This support is tailored to specific needs, such as content development or commercial development.
Leading media outlets
Under this programme, we are providing long-term support to leading exiled media outlets.
Countries
We support exiled media with teams in Georgia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Czechia, Germany, Netherlands, and France.
Future media leaders
We provide training and mentoring for 12 journalists and media managers identified as future leaders of the profession.
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