Truth or dare? How work in exile changes journalism – and how to cope with

Jour­nal­ists in exile – should they talk or act, and are they able to stay objec­tive or inevitably turn­ing into activists? – this ques­tion is enough to spark a dis­cus­sion. We pro­pose to start it from the expe­ri­ence of Belarus, who has a large ecosys­tem of media in exile, and expand on a broad­er con­text.

What and when? Online dis­cus­sion 29.10.2025, 15.00 Berlin and War­saw, 16.00 Vil­nius, via Zoom

This dis­cus­sion will be based on two research­es.  At first, we will briefly intro­duce the very recent one “How media and NGOs (do not) col­lab­o­rate” with 14 in-depth inter­views and 70 online forms, most­ly in exile. The research was made in the sum­mer-autumn 2025 by Belaru­sian NGOs such as The Oth­ers, Belaru­sians union in Ger­many Razam e.v. and Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists.

After that, with an expert we will talk about the spe­cif­ic chal­lenges of jour­nal­ism in exile and cop­ings which are typ­i­cal­ly used to respond to the chal­lenges and strength­en medias. The expert is Hanan Badr, pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Salzburg at the Depart­ment of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Stud­ies (more).

One of expert’s focus­es is work in exile, In 2024, she made a research “Exiled Jour­nal­ist Com­mu­ni­ties in Germany”on a base of 90 ques­tion­naires and 50 inter­views, with the share of 7% inde­pen­dent Belaru­sians jour­nal­ists in exile among all research par­tic­i­pants.

The event is made with sup­port of Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists and Coun­cil of Europe.

To attend, please fill in the FORM until 25.10 including and we will send a link to Zoom on your email.

Offline pre­sen­ta­tions of the research “How media and NGOs (do not) col­lab­o­rate” will be held 23.10 in War­saw and 30.10 in Vil­nius.