Flipmagazine Journalists in exile, a great problem, indeed (II)

Journalists in exile, a great problem, indeed (II)

Lug 02, 2025 Attualità, World Wide

It’s really interesting to go through the amazing work of research project, in affiliation with University of Helsinki, by Elena Rodina and Olga Dovbysh, about journalists in exile.

The growing shift of many countries toward authoritarianism has led to an increase in exiled media communities. Particularly, the Study by Rodina & Dovbysh examines the dual identity of exiled journalists: as new immigrants, who must adapt to their host countries, and as media professionals who must maintain ties with their estranged homeland.

Drawing on extensive empirical data from interviews with Russian exiled journalists and fieldwork done in 2023, it develops an analytical approach to understanding exiled media as a constellation of connections to, and disconnections from, both home and host spaces. On the one hand, Russian exiled journalists strive to navigate and reproduce a digitised reality of the home country, transcending the physical boundaries and restrictions imposed by nation states. On the other hand, their lack of physical presence in Russia fosters a fear of losing their intimate understanding of the homeland and, consequently, their professional authority. Paradoxically, their efforts to stay connected to Russia and keep journalistic doxa deepen their disconnection from their host country and hinder their personal and professional integration.

As such, their occupation, ‘Russian journalist’, becomes a symbolic shelter to maintain the professional status quo. To mitigate isolation in the host society, journalists cultivate alternative connections with exiled journalists from other countries.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian authorities swiftly imposed wartime censorship, which included criminal penalties of up to 15 years in prison for disseminating ‘unreliable information’ about Russia’s armed forces and its ‘special military operation’ (Troianovski and Safronova Citation2022). As a result, more than a thousand journalists fled the country to avoid the immediate threat of imprisonment and to continue their work free from censorship (The Moscow Times, 2023). This mass exodus of journalists, along with their relatively swift reestablishment and continuation of their work from abroad, has become one of the most prominent examples of ‘exilic journalism’, garnering significant media and public attention (Dovbysh and Rodina Citation2022; Windelspecht Citation2023; Myklebost Citation2023).

Par ailleurs, en France pour le soutien aux journalistes en exil il a, Voix en Exil, un programme, lancé par CFI, SINGA et Reporters sans Frontières, qui offre un accompagnement multidimensionnel aux journalistes exilés, incluant un soutien socio-culturel, psycho-social, juridique, administratif et un renforcement des capacités.

Il a aussi la Maison des Journalistes, un association, créée en 2002, qui accueille des journalistes contraints de fuir leur pays en raison de leur profession.

Concludiamo questa nostra prima disamina, in due parti, sul tema dei giornalisti in esilio, con una chiosa di Sergio Bellucci, Direttore Accademico University for Peace dell’Onu, sede in Italia e Giornalista: ”La Rete ridefinisce le forme dell’esilio giornalistico: le voci critiche superano i confini fisici, sfidando il controllo dell’informazione che era territoriale. La libertà di stampa si globalizza, ma la democrazia deve confrontarsi con flussi informativi transnazionali che sfuggono alle sovranità territoriali. Le fonti divengono sempre più indistinte e le stesse denunce si devono confrontare con i messaggi automatizzati dei bot e dei centri della produzione delle fake news. La libertà di stampa, il giornalismo di inchiesta e quello di denuncia degli esiliati, senza regole che ne impediscano processi manipolatori, rischia di perdere la sua stessa funzione di garanzia della libertà di informazione che è a fondamento delle democrazie”

Mauro Pecchenino

Editor