A year after officially launching the Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO), we returned to Italy to continue advocating for the exiled media ecosystem. In 2024, our participation in Perugia’s International Journalism Festival included a side event with donors and media development organizations, and three panels about the realities and challenges of exiled media.
NEMO’s side event
On April 18, NEMO members gathered in a private event to discuss the most frequent questions that people have for exiled media, while also posing vital questions for international organizations that support media freedom. The event was conceived as a space for facilitating an honest conversation about areas of improvement.
The nature of exiled media, the impact (or lack thereof) that exiled outlets can have while operating from abroad, the need for a long-term strategy for sustainability from the donor side, and the practicality of discussing business models when it’s not possible to earn money, were some of the many topics that were analyzed in this private event.
By facilitating and leading this conversation, NEMO members hoped to create more awareness about the peculiarities and challenges of exiled media. If you are a member of an exiled media outlet and would like to suggest more topics to this conversation, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@exiled.media.
The panels
Representatives from Meduza, Confidencial, Meydan TV, and the Democratic Voice of Burma were invited to discuss the strategies they are implementing to become more resilient in the face of authoritarianism. Here you’ll find a summary of the panels they participated in and the videos of those conversations:
➡ Can book publishing save media in exile?
Galina Timchenko and Ivan Kolpakov, co-founders of Meduza (Russia), explain how launching a publishing house has attracted new audiences to their media outlet and helped them monetize their content, making this editorial initiative self-sufficient and profitable.
➡ Newsrooms putting journalists’ well-being first
How can media organizations be more resilient while working in hostile environments? Carlos Fernando Chamorro, founder of Confidencial (Nicaragua), and other editors from young and established media organizations describe the initiatives their newsrooms have developed to guarantee the well-being of their teams.
In this panel, Matt Kasper, publisher of Meydan TV (Azerbaijan), and Aye Chang Naing (Democratic Voice of Burma) shared best practices for taking care of the mental health of their teams and promoting community building. Together with the rest of the panelists, they also examined the gaps and challenges in the support for exiled journalists.