Exiled Media Toolkit

"Being critical, independent and financially sustainable are major challenges exiled media face daily."

The Exiled Media Toolkit features resources and global case studies to help exiled newsrooms report on communities and events in their home countries. Developed by the International Journalists' Network (IJNet) in partnership with the Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO), the toolkit covers issues such as fundraising, reaching audiences, and measuring impact when reporting from outside of one's country. The toolkit is supported by the Joyce Barnathan Emergency Fund for Journalists.

The toolkit consists of the following guides:

Exiled Media 101 - This guide serves as a checklist for those looking for where to start, with tips and tricks covering the basics of properly and efficiently establishing a media outlet in exile, including setting up a legal entity and security considerations.

Fundraising Basics for Exiled Journalists - Fundraising is essential to cover operational and organisational costs. This resource outlines concrete strategies on how to raise funds to produce news from exile.

Building a Reader Revenue Model in Exile - This guide offers five tips for media outlets to build reader revenue while operating in exile.

How to Stay Relevant to Readers in Exile - Serving two communities (diaspora and home country audiences) poses a double challenge. This guide looks at how Confidencial, a member of the Network of Exiled Media Outlets (NEMO), has responded to the information needs of Nicaraguans.

Creating and Maintaining a Network of Journalists in Exile - One of the key challenges for almost any media outlet operating in exile is creating and maintaining a network of reporters within its home country. This guide shares the experiences of Meduza, the largest independent Russian-language media outlet, which has a decade of experience establishing a network of journalists inside Russia from abroad.

Mental Health Support for Exiled Journalists - For journalists living in exile, emotional stress and trauma cannot be discounted. This guide looks at three levels of support to consider when looking after the mental health of journalists in exile: organisational, group, and individual.

Measuring Journalism's Impact from Exile - It is critical for newsrooms to measure the impact of their reporting to inform decision-making around content, audience engagement strategies, and funding proposals, as well as to improve resource management and enhance team morale. This resource offers guidance on how to decide on what analytical tools (such as  Google Analytics, Buffer, Mailchimp, and SurveyMonkey) to use.

The toolkit also includes the following case studies:

Reporting in the Shadows in Myanmar: The Case of the Democratic Voice of Burma - In Myanmar, the Democratic Voice of Burma is reporting on one of the world's most restrictive and dangerous settings.

Navigating War and Vanishing Freedoms in Russia: The Case of ROMB - ROMB, a Berlin, Germany-based outlet reporting on Russia primarily through video, uses freelance journalists to report amid the collapse of independent Russian media.

Born in Nicaragua, Forced into Exile: The Case of Divergentes - Divergentes, a digital outlet that covers and reaches Nicaraguan and other Central American communities, specialises in investigative journalism on government corruption and human rights abuses.