As the world marked World Press Freedom Day on May 3, journalists, scholars and artists gathered at the Haus am Dom cultural center in Frankfurt this week to discuss growing pressures on journalism from political repression, digital censorship and the challenges faced by journalists in exile.
The event, titled “Sichtbar verstummt?” (Visibly Silenced?), was the first episode of the “Frankfurter Gespräche” (Frankfurt Talks) series, co-hosted by Haus am Dom and the International Journalists Association (IJA), a press organization established by Turkish journalists in exile in Germany in 2017.
Among the speakers at the event, held on Tuesday evening, were Professor Joachim Valentin, a theologian and director of Haus am Dom; Turkish Minute Editor-in-Chief and author of this report Fatma Zibak; documentary director and journalist Bedrettin Uğur; artists Susanne Köhler and Gerhard Keller; and IJA’s Director of International Relations and Social Responsibility Initiatives Yasemin Aydın.
In his opening remarks Professor Valentin talked about the erosion of press freedom worldwide, warning of its “dire consequences” for democracies.
He described the event’s mission as one of hope and responsibility: “Our goal is to see fewer journalists in exile and to help create an environment where they don’t have to fear for their lives or that of their families.”
Germany plays a significant role as a home for exiled journalists, providing a safe haven and support networks for those forced to flee their countries due to persecution or threats. The legal framework of Germany, which ranks 11th among 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index recently released by Reporters without Borders (RSF), guarantees freedom of speech and press and the right to asylum.
Reporting from exile
Among the exiled journalists in Germany are hundreds from Turkey who had to flee a government-led crackdown on independent journalists following a coup attempt in 2016 and have established news platforms there to reach out to Turks as well as the international community.
Turkish Minute’s Editor-in-Chief Zibak, one of those journalists, shared her journey into exile following the closure of her newspaper, the English-language Today’s Zaman, in the aftermath of the failed coup in Turkey.
Following the coup attempt, hundreds of media outlets were closed down in Turkey and dozens of journalists were arrested as part of a post-coup crackdown on bogus terrorism or coup charges.
Now also reporting in English from abroad for about nine years, Zibak said that exile is not merely a safe haven, it’s also a platform for telling the stories of those silenced in her home country.
She said her hope about for things to “change for the better” in Turkey keeps her motivation alive to continue her journalistic work in exile.
With regards to the challenges of exile journalism, she cited difficulty in reaching reach news sources in Turkey and financial insecurity while saying that the biggest advantage of being an exiled journalist is the “freedom” to write stories without the fear of arrest.
Turkey, which has suffered from a poor press freedom record for years, ranks 159th in this year’s World Press Freedom Index released by RSF, slipping one place from last year’s index.
Documentary filmmaker and journalist Bedrettin Uğur, who left Turkey in 2017, described exile journalism as both a burden and a form of resistance. “Telling the truth is not just a profession; it’s a form of resistance,” he said. Uğur acknowledged the emotional and psychological toll of working in exile but noted that documenting truth helps preserve the collective memory and provides an alternative to the government narrative on the dramatic events that have changed Turkey.
Uğur directed several documentaries in exile that aim to shed light on the failed coup on July 15, 2016 and the stories of judges and prosecutors who were purged from their jobs following the abortive putsch and their insights into the erosion of the rule of law in the country.
“Exile journalism,” he said, “offers a space to fight for hope and change while defending the freedom to remember.”
Art as memory and resistance
One of the event’s most powerful moments came from artists Köhler and Keller, who presented their project “Wahrheitskämpfer” (Truth Fighters), a moving collection of over 800 portraits of murdered and imprisoned journalists worldwide.
“This is more than an act of remembrance,” Köhler said. “It’s a call for solidarity.” The project, both a traveling exhibit and a symbolic monument, aims to give visual presence to those silenced and to reinforce the struggle for press freedom through art.
Digital platforms, silent censorship
The IJA’s Aydın talked about the growing digital censorship around the world and in particular in Turkey, and how giant social media companies are collaborating with repressive governments to silence independent journalists.
She said digital platforms today represent one of the greatest threats to press freedom, not through direct state interference but through invisible algorithmic censorship that affects the visibility of independent voices and content.
She cited the example of Gazete Duvar, an independent news website that was launched in Turkey in 2016 but had to end its operations in March due to economic problems caused primarily by Google algorithm changes.
Some Turkish media outlets and opposition figures have been accusing Google of indirectly censoring independent news organizations in Turkey through algorithm adjustments that have significantly reduced visibility, with some experiencing traffic losses of up to 80 percent.
Representatives of several media outlets say that the decline in visitor numbers has deprived independent news organizations of significant revenue, causing them to suffer financially.