Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a report yesterday to mark World Refugee Day, stating that the forced migration of journalists has increased across the world. According to the organization’s findings, the report places particular focus on the situation of the media in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Russia. The organization said the number of countries of origin for migrant journalists has doubled in five years. According to the report, between 2021 and 2025, 1,468 journalists from at least 65 countries were forced to leave their countries. They fled due to threats, imprisonment, or the risk of death, and as a result, several regions of the world have been left without the presence of independent media.
Reporters Without Borders said that Afghanistan, after falling to the Taliban, has become the global center of the forced migration of journalists. According to the organization, 677 journalists have left Afghanistan since 2021, accounting for half of the cases recorded by Reporters Without Borders.
The report states that these journalists are now scattered across 28 countries and represent one of the largest losses to independent media in modern history. Even so, many of them are not safe even in the countries they have moved to as temporary refuge. In 2025, another 82 journalists also went into exile.
Reporters Without Borders said that many journalists from Afghanistan are not safe even in the countries where they are staying temporarily. According to the report, Pakistan carried out the forced deportation of asylum seekers in 2023, during which at least 50 journalists were sent back to Afghanistan. Inside Afghanistan, the Taliban have continued their crackdown, and five journalists are officially in detention.
Data from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that the exile of journalists worldwide is a sharply rising trend. Over the past five years, the number of countries that media workers have been forced to flee to has doubled, rising from 19 in 2021 to 40 in 2025.
The report states that the intensification of political and security crises in various parts of the world is a key factor in the spread of this phenomenon. Wars, the presence of organized crime, pressure from drug cartels, and authoritarian crackdowns are considered among the main reasons journalists flee.
Reporters Without Borders said that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was a turning point in the suppression of the media and led 160 Russian journalists to go into exile with the organization’s help. According to the report, Moscow has extended its repression beyond its borders as well, trying dozens of media workers in absentia. The organization said that despite these pressures, 63 independent Russian media outlets operate abroad and have audiences in the millions in Russia.
The report states that in Myanmar, more than 100 journalists under the protection of Reporters Without Borders have been forced to leave the country since the military coup in 2021, and a total of 300 Myanmar journalists have taken refuge in Thailand to escape the atmosphere of fear and terror.
Reporters Without Borders said that in Africa, conflicts in regions such as the “Sahel” and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have opened new routes for exile. According to the report, in Latin America, factors such as institutional instability and pressure from drug cartels in countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela are forcing journalists to leave their countries.
The report states that Egypt and Turkey are among the countries that simultaneously host foreign journalists while also suppressing their own media workers. The report specifies that Egypt is a refuge for more than 300 journalists who have fled the war in Sudan, as well as Palestinian and Syrian journalists, but at the same time, it is considered one of the largest prisons for journalists in the world.
According to the report, 18 journalists are currently imprisoned in that country, and at least 11 Egyptian journalists have left their country during this period. According to Reporters Without Borders, Turkey is in a similar situation. The report states that while Turkey serves as a regional hub welcoming asylum seekers, at least 10 Turkish journalists have fled the country to escape the challenges of working independently.
At the same time, Reporters Without Borders has offered 10 recommendations across three areas to support journalists. The organization has called on host countries to ease the path to work permits and residency for journalists by granting long-term, renewable visas and to take practical steps by establishing legal mechanisms to protect against online harassment and transnational repression.
Reporters Without Borders has also called for securing sustainable funding for media organizations in exile, providing tax exemptions, and creating shared workspaces. The organization stressed that supporting the development of censorship-circumvention technologies, encouraging media outlets to obtain standard editorial certifications, and financing training programs in fields such as cybersecurity and financial management should be at the top of countries’ priorities.
The organization stressed that the statistics presented are based solely on the cases recorded and reviewed by its offices. According to the organization, these figures represent only a small part of a much larger crisis and do not cover all the complex routes and full dimensions of the phenomenon of exile. The report states that the current trend shows that exile is not the end of threats, but rather the beginning of challenges such as extortion, administrative abuse, and unstable living conditions for journalists.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
