Parliamentary Breakfast on Exiled Media and Transnational Repressions

Berlin, 10 September 2026. Parliamentary Breakfast at the German Bundestag, initiated by jinn and taz Panter Foundation in collaboration with Nancy Faeser (SPD) and Adis Ahmetović (SPD). Members of the Bundestag, federal ministries and exiled journalists discuss protection against transnational repression and resilience of independent media in exile, and agree on closer cooperation against TNR, the continuation of support programmes, and political pressure on the major technology platforms.

Against the background of intensifying transnational repression and the increasingly precarious situation of exiled newsrooms, a parliamentary breakfast was held on 10 October 2026 at the German Bundestag.

Nancy Faeser, Member of the German Bundestag (SPD) and member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, opened the Parliamentary Breakfast. Exile media and journalism at risk are indispensable to the free formation of public opinion. Germany must keep an eye on their situation and remain in close dialogue with independent media in German exile. She underlined the seriousness of transnational repression reaching across the German border, from surveillance, intimidation and direct threats against journalists in Germany, to in absentia prosecutions, pressure on family members, the denial of consular services, and digitally organised blocking.

Gemma Teres Arilla, Managing Director of the taz Panter Foundation, showed the importance of the support programmes and fellowships for journalists at risk and drew attention to the persistent difficulties surrounding visas. She also highlighted the situation of exiled Belarusians, who are unable to renew their passports abroad. This restriction is one of the instruments of transnational repression employed by the Lukashenka regime, which seeks to compel journalists and activists to return to Belarus in order to renew their documents, only to arrest them at the border.

Sergey Medvedev, founder of jinn, emphasised the pivotal role of exiled newsrooms, which for domestic audiences often represent the last and only alternative source of information. He described the critical situation of displaced media following the freeze on United States funding, the closure of a major funding programme in the United Kingdom and reductions in German funding. As authoritarian governments prevent them from generating advertising revenue or receiving donations from readers at home, most exiled media depend on public project money. He also underlined the distinctive contribution of exiled media to democratic resilience in Germany, through investigative work on disinformation, reporting on money laundering and corruption, and through collaborative work with German media outlets.

Mahtab Qolizadeh, an Iranian journalist who was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison and now works in exile, recounted how her relatives in Iran continue to be pressured and intimidated by the Revolutionary Guards.

Ekaterina Abramova, Deputy Head of Russia's largest independent exile news outlet, described how the Kremlin uses intimidation of journalists, DDoS attacks and repressive legislation to silence critical reporting — yet Meduza continues to report and to distribute its content via a secure app, web-mirrors and social media.

The discussion concentrated on four areas. The first and the biggest one was transnational repression, including cases occurring in Germany. Le Trung Khoa, Editor-in-Chief of Thoibao.de, the largest Vietnamese exile media outlet, has been intimidated repeatedly, faced an attempt at bribery aimed at silencing his newsroom, and has been threatened directly. He has been under special police protection in Germany for almost ten years.

The second was the need for special support and visa arrangements for journalists who remain in war zones and authoritarian states, so that they can come to Germany for shelter programmes, like the six-month recovery programmes of the taz Panter Foundation and Reporters Without Borders.

The third was the funding situation: after the freeze on United States funding in 2025 and subsequent cuts elsewhere, public funding has become the only means by which most exiled media, and investigative outlets in particular, can sustain their reporting.

The fourth concerned the conduct of the large technology platforms, which are silencing independent media in exile through simple and in part semi-automated blocking initiated by censorship authorities and security services of authoritarian governments. At the same time, Google News, Facebook and YouTube in particular continue to make their platforms available to state-controlled outlets and well-documented disinformation channels. Their algorithms promote and assist the dissemination of information manipulation.

Holger Mann (SPD), Member of the German Bundestag, asked the journalists present to provide cases and evidence documenting how Google, Meta and other platforms block their content while offering their infrastructure for information manipulation, and suggested communicating these cases through political channels.

Representatives of the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior also addressed protection against transnational repression, referring to the new guidance from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz) for those affected, the importance of contacting the police by emergency call in acute situations, and the dedicated reporting point at the authority, which accepts submissions through the hotline.

Thomas Weichert, of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, stated also that the question of a simplified procedure for humanitarian visas remains a political matter and cannot be altered without a further decision by the Federal Government; for other visa matters, the Federal Foreign Office remains responsible and available as a point of contact.

Claudia Gabriele Schmitz from the Federal Foreign Office explained how the Hannah Arendt Initiative provides support on three levels globally: for journalists in crisis regions, through media hubs in neighboring countries, and, in cooperation with the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, within Germany.

Alexis Below from the Federal Foreign Office noted that further support is provided through the Eastern Partnership and Russia programme.

Journalists followed up with questions and remarks, continuing the discussion. Leyla Mustafayeva, the editor-in-chief of Qazetci, Azerbaijan, and Vania Pigeonutt, a journalist from Mexico, described violence and intimidation against media workers, ranging from raids, arrests and in absentia sentences to the murder of colleagues. Gabriela Ramirez, a journalist from Venezuela, warned that protection of at-risk media workers must not be tied to regime change: Syrian journalists lost their protection status when the Assad regime fell, yet neither Syria nor Venezuela after Maduro has become safer for journalists. Ekaterina Martynova, publisher of Russian Doxa, thanked the Federal Foreign Office for support and stressed that programmes such as Eastern Partnership and Russia are vital for exiled media, and that more and more exiled media searching for more sustainable funding.

The parliamentary breakfast concluded with an agreement to cooperate more closely on the investigation of cases of transnational repression, to maintain support and funding programmes for journalists at risk and exiled newsrooms, to raise with the large technology platforms at political level the need to stop silencing independent media, and to continue this dialogue in further rounds of consultation.

jinn, the taz Panter Foundation and our networks of journalists wish to thank the Members of the German Bundestag for an open dialogue, a committed exchange and their continued support, and look forward to the next rounds of consultation aimed at making the work of journalists at risk and of exiled newsrooms safer and more sustainable.