Preparing for exile: the playbook every journalist dreads but needs

Rising authoritarianism, war, and dwindling media freedoms have forced many independent journalists and media around the world to escape fines, jail, or death by fleeing to other countries. Their tales differ due to different contexts and geographies, and their experiences setting up in host countries successfully are varied. A grim reality is that many more are likely to follow suit, with escalating legal threats against journalists, a spike in online harassment and cyberattacks and declining public trust in media in an overloaded information system. So how can journalists anticipate and prepare for exile? And once abroad, how can they set up successfully? What is the role of donors, international communities, and host countries in this?

Drawing on the first-hand experiences of Russian and Nigerian journalists in exile, as well as exiled media from other contexts, this panel will explore the common host of indicators that sound the alarm bell for fleeing: from the number, type and cadence of legal attacks, upticks in the nature of online harassment, physical threats. Moderated by Heba Kandil.

Organised in association with Thomson Reuters Foundation and Internews.