World Refugee Day - Voices in Exile: striving to prevent exile from erasing journalists’ voices
Related project
Voices in exileGearing up for World Refugee Day, CFI’s programme Voices in Exile run with SINGA, the Maison des Journalistes and Reporters Without Borders (RWB), has announced the launch of its second edition.
This programme highlights a rarely covered state of affairs: that of journalists forced to flee their country and rebuild their careers in exile, in France. The High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) estimated that over 130 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced in 2024, and several thousand of them were journalists. Voices in Exile provides a setting in which reporters can continue to work, freely and safely.
Safeguarding the freedom to inform: a major component of democracy
Journalism is like oxygen for democracy, which is why independent news reporters are often targeted and forced into exile in other parts of the world, such as France. These refugee reporters play a key role in safeguarding access to reliable, independent, pluralist news reporting. In exile, they continue to speak to their fellow citizens back home, to the diasporas and the general public abroad.
Against a global backdrop of increased repression of the media and restrictions in the freedom of the press, their output fuels democratic debate, as they document human rights violations and help to push back against disinformation. Protecting them and their capacity to continue to work as journalists is an indispensable condition of the right to be informed.
Voices in Exile: a programme to support refugee journalists
Backed by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Voices in Exile programme supports refugee journalists as they rebuild their career in France while also facing considerable challenges including isolation, precarity, administrative difficulties and the language barrier. This key programme makes them feel welcome and provides socio-administrative support, provides capacity-building by way of training and mentoring, and promotes their work by raising its visibility and introducing them to the French media scene, helping to break with the double uprooting, both geographic and professional.
Since it was first launched in September 2024, Voices in Exile has backed an initial set of 17 journalists from 10 countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Russia, Iran, Haiti and Guinea, where freedom of the press is either a “difficult” or “very serious” situation according to the 2025 RWB index.
The second edition was launched in May 2025, with 14 journalists from Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Togo and other countries embarking on an intensive, 9-month support programme.
World Refugee Day, a high point for journalists in exile
For CFI, Singa, RWB and the Maison des Journalistes, World Refugee Day is a key moment for highlighting the work produced by these reporters. The professionals supported by the Voices in Exile programme publish investigations, reports and articles putting forward their valuable view of often little known situations, including press card loss in exile, migration caused by climate disruption, maternity during forced displacement, as well as the situation in their home countries, such as the fall of Bachar al-Assad in Syria and how women are treated in Afghanistan.
World Refugee Day is also an occasion to emphasise the importance of welcoming these journalists, so they may seek refuge in safer countries, continue to work as journalists and let their host country benefit from their expertise. It must also draw attention to the many administrative difficulties encountered by these refugees on their journey and which they encounter again in France. The Voices in Exile programme naturally takes this dimension into account so that the journalists may continue to work freely and in conditions that are as serene as possible.
- FollowVoices in Exile news: : https://bit.ly/4kk8SNB
- Read some output by programme beneficiaries:
https://voixenexil.substack.com/p/la-redaction
