Getting Out Is Just the First Step: What Refugees Must Go Through To Reach Safety And Then Face In Exile
September 2, 2025 at 1:00 pm ET
Register HERE.
Each year dozens, if not hundreds, of journalists are forced to flee their home countries because of threats to them and their families.
Just getting refugee status can be a demeaning and exhausting process. Once status is granted, the refugee and family face another issue: How to survive in their new country. Many countries limit the types of work allowed to people with refugee status. Too many journalists and other professionals are relegated to work that does not allow them to prosper or from the host country to benefit from their skills and talents.
Join us for an in-depth discussion that looks at what leads people to flee their home country and what issues they face once they are safely out. The panelists will also discuss what the local journalism communities can do to help these people.
PANELISTS
Taha Siddiqui is a Pakistani investigative journalist who has been living in exile in France since 2018. In Pakistan, he reported for leading international media such as the New York Times, the Guardian and France24. He had to flee his homeland after surviving a kidnapping and assassination attempt. Pakistani army officials threatened him, hoping to censor his reporting on military abuse in the country. In 2019, he was informed by French and American authorities that his name was on a Pakistani state-sanctioned kill List
In Paris he founded the DISSIDENT club, a bar where dissidents of the world meet. He recently published his first book – an autobiography as a graphic novel called Dissident Club, named after his bar which documents his journey from growing up in an Islamist family to becoming an atheist and his fight for freedom of expression and religion.
Kami Rice has been working as a freelance writer and editor for years.
She is also the co-founder of Allied Shepherd, which works to help endangered Afghans seeking safety in other countries.
Based in Europe, she travels the world widely, with a particular interest in how policies and geopolitical maneuvering affect regular people. Anthrow Circus is a mixed media collection crafted by artists and journalists working as creative anthropologists to examine culture and society.
Moderator
Jessica Jerreat is an award-winning journalist with nearly 25 years’ experience in local and international news and press freedom for organizations including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and The Times of London. She joined the Voice of America March 2020 and currently holds the enviable title of Press Freedom Editor.
Jerreat is a plaintiff in an ongoing lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its policy of closing the US Agency for Global Media, the parent agency for VOA.
A no-agenda, no holds barred get together sponsored by the SPJ International Community. Just a chance to meet and chat.
Sign up HERE.
The murders of investigative journalist Regina Martínez and photojournalist Rubén Espinosa, about 10 years ago became the inspiration for “Cocodrilos,” the debut fictional feature film by director J. Xavier Velasco. The film is a thriller that looks at the cost of seeking the truth where collusion between authorities and organized crime is the main threat to people’s right to be informed.
Join the SPJ International Community on Sept. 23 at 6:00 pm ET as we talk with Velasco about his film and his views on the importance of independent and free media.
Those signing up for the webinar will receive a free link to view the movie during the week before our session.
Sign up HERE.
The world celebrates World News Day. The SPJ has been proud to have offered our support to those fighting for press freedom around the world. Unfortunately, the battle at home is getting a bit more intense.
Last year the organizers noted: “World’s democracies depend on news media for their very existence. And yet they are both dying. It’s time we all get involved.” The message of 2024 is just as important today.
Join the Press Freedom Team on Tuesday, October 7 at 6 p.m. for an upcoming reception at the National Press Club!
National Press Club members and Press Freedom Center staff will be joined by Alsu Kurmasheva, who will discuss her work as a press freedom advocate, and provide updates on recent press freedom developments in Europe and Russia.
This reception is designed to bring the Club community together and celebrate the vital work of the Press Freedom Center. Don’t miss a chance to learn more about how the Press Freedom Center is advancing press freedom initiatives through personal engagement and meaningful intervention – and how Club members can support and amplify that work.
Book tickets HERE.
Alsu Kurmasheva is an award-winning journalist and editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), where she has reported extensively on cultural and human rights issues in Russia’s Volga-Ural region. She first joined RFE/RL in 1998 as a radio program moderator and has since built a career covering the experiences of ethnic minorities in Russia. Her reporting has also focused on gender issues, with in-depth investigations into domestic violence and women’s rights.
In October 2023, Kurmasheva was detained in Russia and charged with spreading “false” information about the Russian military, a charge linked to her alleged role in distributing a book featuring accounts from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine. Held for more than nine months, in July 2024, Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. In August 2024, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange that also saw the return of fellow American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Following her release from detention in Russia, Alsu Kurmasheva has emerged as a vocal advocate for press freedom, drawing on her own experience of imprisonment to highlight the risks journalists face in authoritarian regimes.
Last year, shortly after her release from Russian prison, Alsu was interviewed by the SPJ International Community along with Daniel Fenster, who was held by the Myanmar government in 2021. The two talked about how they dealt with their imprisonment for “doing journalism” and why so many authoritarian governments fear free and independent news reporting.
You can view the interview below.
Did you know?
- 162 journalists have been killed in the line of duty in 2023-2024.
- 85 % of cases of journalists’ killings since 2006 are still unresolved or abandoned.
- The number of women journalists killed in 2022 was at its highest level since 2017, with 10 cases.
- Almost half of the deaths took place in countries experiencing armed conflict, compared with 38% in the previous two years.
Read more about the day HERE.
Current times mean many of our sources may fear repercussions ranging from deportation to court action to violence. How can journalists protect sensitive sources? Erica Hellerstein developed a policy to protect immigrant sources for El Timpano in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kae Petrin co-founded the Trans Journalists Association and is board president for the organization. Margaux Ewen is director of whistleblower protection at The Signals Network, which works with journalists and sources. They’ll share examples and suggest ways to work with sources while minimizing harm.
Registration is required to attend the free Zoom webinar on Wednesday, January 14 at 12 p.m. ET.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
- Margaux Ewen is the director of The Signals Network’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Margaux was most recently the director of Freedom House’s Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners, a major project to support journalists, human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists who are detained in retaliation for their heroic work.
- Erica Hellerstein is senior immigration, labor and economics reporter for El Tímpano in the San Francisco Bay area. She is an award-winning journalist with more than a decade of experience reporting on global human rights issues. She’s reported from Africa, Latin America, Europe and across the United States while writing about politics, gender, labor, historical memory and the ways geographies real and constructed shape popular opinion and culture.
- Kae Petrin is president of the Trans Journalists Association board, after co-founding the organization in 2020. They are on leave from their full-time job as a data and graphics reporter at Civic News Company for a 2025-26 John S. Knight fellowship at Stanford, exploring ways to improve coverage of trans communities and retention of trans journalists.
The most consequential midterm election stories — who is organizing, how money and messaging are taking shape, and which issues are reshaping voter priorities — are already unfolding, long before the first votes are cast.
Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute and OpenSecrets for a free webinar that will prepare journalists to cover the midterms with financial data top of mind. This interactive session will focus on OpenSecrets’ campaign finance tools that can support your local and regional political reporting in 2026 and beyond.
OpenSecrets launched in 2021 following a merger between the National Institute on Money in Politics and the Center for Responsive Politics, which expanded users’ access to a vast collection of campaign finance data on state and local races, as well as lobbying data.
During this one-hour, virtual session, participants will learn:
– How to find, download, and incorporate public data into their elections-focused storytelling on deadline;
– How to explore Open Secrets’ “Get Local!” donations tracker and other reliable tools; and
– Strategies to strengthen their midterms coverage in 2026 through accountability journalism.
In the spirit of transparency, this session is also open to interested members of the public.
Journalists today aren’t just reporting the news — they’re becoming their own social media managers. As more people turn to social platforms as their primary news source, knowing how to promote your work strategically and thoughtfully has become a core journalism skill. Not a bonus one.
Kassy Cho, editor-in-chief of Almost, will lead this virtual workshop and share best practices for sharing your reporting on different platforms like Instagram and TikTok. That’ll include how to draw people in, visuals 101 and tips for defining goals.
This SPJ DC–requested workshop is designed to help reporters meet audiences where they already are. Bring your breakfast and questions for this early-morning session!
Register for the Zoom session here.
Editor-in-Chief of Almost, Kassy leads an independent media platform delivering social-first news for young people, helping them make sense of global events with truth, clarity and heart. Kassy’s work has reached hundreds of millions worldwide, sparking new conversations and shifting how news is understood across platforms. She is also a passionate advocate for social change through digital storytelling and education, empowering young people to understand, participate in and reshape the world around them.
In this webinar, hosted by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), we’ll examine how government officials are increasingly labeling routine accountability reporting as “doxxing.” That term originally meant exposing personal information about private people to harass them. But now, government officials are extending it to publication of newsworthy information about public officials. They are intentionally confusing the American public about the role of journalism and even threatening legal action against journalists, newsrooms, and ordinary people for publishing information the public has a right to know.
Register HERE
We’ll hear from journalists who have faced these “doxxing” accusations firsthand:
– Vittoria Elliott, reporter at Wired covering platforms and power
– Gregory Royal Pratt, investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune
– Doug Sovern, award-winning political reporter, formerly of KCBS Radio
– Charlie Kratovil, founder and editor of New Brunswick Today
– Moderated by Caitlin Vogus, senior adviser, FPF
From federal threats against reporters covering Immigration and Customs Enforcement to state laws restricting what journalists can publish about police, government officials are citing “doxxing” to threaten press freedom. When accountability is reframed as harassment, it chills reporting and limits the public’s access to information about how power is exercised.
I hope you’ll join us for this important discussion and support our work defending the First Amendment by donating at freedom.press/donate.