Space for freedom: Strengthening voices from exile
In many countries, journalists face increasing pressure as governments see themselves threatened by critical reporting and thus intimidate mistreat, persecute or even kill media professionals. Thousands have since left their countries to protect themselves and their families.
In response, DW Akademie has launched the Space for Freedom project and works with local partner organizations. It enables exiled journalists to continue their crucial work and support themselves financially.
The project is aimed at journalists originally from Eastern Europe and Central Ameria and creates structures and resources so that they and their exiled media outlets can continue to report independently.
Trainings and more for exiled journalists from Eastern Europe
Together with the Belarus in Focus Information Office and the Baltic Centre for Media Excellence, DW Akademie supports Russian and Belarusian journalists in establishing themselves professionally and acquiring new qualifications while continuing to reach their audiences. Space for Freedom provides journalists with scholarships, assists them in relocating and offers consultations and trainings.
"We now feel we're on solid ground again and have the strength to continue," said a Belarusian participant who, for safety reasons, asked to remain anonymous. "The security training helps to lessen the fears of colleagues working in Belarus and to fully understand how to communicate safely via messenger services."
Supporting independent reporting in Central America
In Central America, state and organized crime actors are applying extreme pressure on media professionals and thus threaten freedom of the press.
Costa Rica’s relatively stable and strong institutional framework enables many exiled journalists to continue their work there. New safety concerns are curbed by protective measures and support.
In Costa Rica, DW Akademie, together with the Instituto de Prensa y Libertad de Expresión (IPLEX),offers journalists in exile opportunities for exchange and training, scolarships as well as support for legal, emotional, economic and personal security issues. The initiative combines and tailors existing offers for media professionals at risk.
From August 22 to June 2025, DW Akademie also supported journalists from Afghanistan as part of its Space for Freedom initiative. In 2024 and 2025, the team supported nearly 30 female media professionals who, despite drastic restrictions imposed by the ruling Taliban, dared report from inside the country from a women's perspective. In 2022 and 2023, more than 90 Afghan journalists in exile in neighboring countries received scholarships and comprehensive consultations as well as digital journalism and security training offered by Dari- and Pashto-speaking experts.
The results: journalistic reports for the Afghan population living inside and outside of the country. Participants, trainers and advisors point out that DW Akademie's support for media professionals in Afghanistan and in exile was helpful and urgently needed, given the Taliban's increasing oppression of women and freedom of expression, and the growing repression of host countries.
DW Akademie is conducting the Space for Freedom project as a network partner of the German government's Hannah Arendt Initiative. Through this initiative, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media support journalists, media workers and defenders of freedom of expression in crisis and conflict areas, as well as those living in exile in Germany.
