![Police in Nigeria on May 27 arrested journalist Precious Eze Chukwunonso, the publisher of privately owned online publication News Platform, and detained him for 18 days over a May 8 article about a local business. (Photo: Courtesy of Precious Eze Chukwunonso)](https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Precious-Eze-Chukwunonso.jpg?w=652)
Begum TV is a channel led by Afghan journalists in exile in France. (Photo: AFP/ Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt)
Threats, repression, conflict, and unrest: across the world, these and other factors are pushing journalists into exile in record numbers. In a striking development, exiled or soon-to-be exiled journalists now make up more than half of the people CPJ assists. Between January and June 2024, CPJ provided financial support to 158 journalists; 101, or about 64% of these people had fled their home countries or were in the process of fleeing.
These figures demonstrate the dire needs of journalists in exile, and the bitter reality that exile is not the end of a journalist’s problems but in many cases just the beginning.
Unless journalists have dual citizenship, preexisting visas, or the ability to acquire an emergency visa, they may have to remain in a transit country while seeking permanent resettlement to a third country, a process that can take months or years. Many transit countries also have poor press freedom records.
In a new CPJ special report, Emergencies Director Lucy Westcott explains why so many journalists remain insecure in exile.
More in the report:
-Feature: The exodus of Ecuador’s press
-Feature: Exiled Ethiopian journalists struggle
–CPJ’s recommendations on emergency visas
–CPJ emergency assistance information
The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes reports that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be freed from prison in a plea deal with the United States Justice Department.
“Julian Assange faced a prosecution that had grave implications for journalists and press freedom worldwide,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “While we welcome the end of his detention, the U.S.’s pursuit of Assange has set a harmful legal precedent by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers. This should never have been the case.”
According to news reports, Assange is expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information.
We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.
Muawiya Abdel Razek
Freelance, Sudan
Jam Saghir Ahmed Lar
Daily Khabrain, Pakistan
Zayd Abu Zayed
Quran Radio, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Myat Thu Tan
Western News, Myanmar
Mardonio Mejía
Sonora Estéreo, Colombia
Hamza Al Dahdouh
Al-Jazeera, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory