CPJ Emergencies Director Lucy Westcott speaks about journalists in exile that CPJ has helped in the last few years. (Screenshot: CPJ/YouTube)
World Refugee Day: CPJ’s Lucy Westcott on journalists in exile
For World Refugee Day on Thursday, June 20, CPJ highlighted the plight of journalists forced to flee their home countries due to threats, violence, and repression. As a growing number of journalists are being exiled, many face ongoing dangers even after they have reached safety. Learn more »
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 Leading press freedom organizations submit amicus brief in Maria Ressa case
In an effort to deter the legal persecution of trailblazing journalist and Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa and her former colleague Reynaldo Santos, and to protect the public’s right to be informed, CPJ and its partners submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the Philippines this month. Learn more »
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Must-read
In a feature for CPJ, Palestinian journalist Abu Bakr Bashir writes about the struggles he faced as a journalist in Gaza, balancing complex relationships with Israel and Hamas in order to do his job, as well as the friends he lost along the way. “When I lived in Gaza, I was worried about my life and my children’s future. Now in London, I worry about Gaza and the future of journalism there,” he writes for CPJ, “And at the end of this, will there be young men and women willing to go into journalism in Gaza?”
CPJ’s John Otis spoke with journalists who fled Ecuador following drug-related violence and threats they faced for investigating local gangs. One media group in Ecuador, Fundamedios, found that at least 16 journalists have fled the country since 2023. “He lifted up his shirt and showed me his gun,” one journalist said of a threat he received. “He called me a ‘toad’ [a police informer] and said: ‘If you keep publishing this stuff, you will see what will happen.’”
CPJ Africa program staff took a close look at journalists from Ethiopia who fled amid a prolonged media crackdown. CPJ is aware of at least 54 Ethiopian journalists and media workers who have gone into exile since 2020, and has provided at least 30 of them with emergency assistance. “My only two options,” one journalist told CPJ, “were living in my beloved country without working my beloved job; or leaving my beloved country and working my beloved job.”
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