Bünyamin Tekin, Brussels
Speakers at a Brussels panel discussion marking World Press Freedom Day warned that journalists in exile face increasing censorship from large online platforms acting on requests from authoritarian states and urged the European Union to enforce existing digital legislation to protect media freedom across borders.
The panel discussion, titled “The Press Freedom Talks: Journalism in the Digital Age,” was held at Vrije Universiteit Brussel on Thursday. Organized by the Belgian-based Solidarity with OTHERS, a nongovernmental organization that mainly consists of political exiles from Turkey, the event coincided with a controversial court-ordered block of the official X account of İstanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is in pretrial detention in Turkey. The incident marked the latest in a growing pattern of content removals by X in response to Turkish government demands.
Moderated by journalist Selçuk Gültaşlı, the panel featured Renate Schroeder, director of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ); Abdullah Bozkurt, former director of the Stockholm Center for Freedom and founder of Nordic Monitor; Ahmed Gamal Ziada, an Egyptian investigative journalist; Karl van den Broeck, editor-in-chief of Apache; and Lailuma Sadid, Afghan journalist and board member of Exiled Journalist’s Support Association (En-Gaje).
The event opened with remarks from moderator Gültaşlı, a Turkish journalist whose newspaper was taken over by the Turkish government. “If you as a citizen are not well informed about public policies, you cannot make free and well-informed decisions to [vote in] elections,” he said. “If citizens are not informed, democracy cannot function.”
Gültaşlı described how governments dismantle democracy by first attacking the free press — through censorship, surveillance and control over public broadcasting — and pointed to examples in Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, Egypt, Afghanistan and Turkey.
“In Turkey, where 90 percent of the media is owned by government cronies, journalism is permitted only within the red lines drawn by the state,” he said. “Investigating human rights abuses, corruption or government mismanagement can cost you your freedom and your career.”
EU response: Enforcement of media safeguards remains uncertain
The discussion turned to the European Union’s response with a prerecorded video from Irena Joveva, a Slovenian member of the European Parliament with the Renew Europe group. She called the European Media Freedom Act a “very good” legal safeguard but stressed that “enforcement will be key.”
“You only become aware of freedom once you lose it,” she said. “Both private and public media are constantly under pressure, including in many member states of the European Union.”
Joveva highlighted concerns about state advertising enriching pro-government media and the growing influence of oligarchs buying outlets and changing editorial lines overnight. “The best solution we came up with is to give power to the journalists themselves and legally recognize their work as a public good,” she said.
The “Press Freedom Talks: Journalism in the Digital Age” event has just kicked off at @VUBrussel. Organized by @OthersInfo, the panel brings together journalists and media experts to discuss challenges and threats facing the profession today. pic.twitter.com/SH7RuX1pKc
— Bünyamin Tekin (@Bunyamintekin0) May 8, 2025
Censorship by large online platforms
The issue of platform censorship was addressed in the context of Turkey’s increasing pressure on social media companies. According to data by digital rights watchdogs, X has withheld more than 300 accounts and over 700 tweets in Turkey since May 2023. These actions were taken in response to court orders issued at politically sensitive moments, including elections, protests and the death of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen.
In its most recent action on May 8 — the same day as the Brussels panel discussion — X confirmed it withheld İmamoğlu’s account from Turkish users after prosecutors claimed his April 24 post from prison constituted incitement. His message had called on the public to “Raise your voices.”
From May 2023 to May 2025, X acted on Turkish orders at least six times, usually citing the need to avoid platform-wide throttling if it failed to comply.
Exiled journalists describe ongoing pressure beyond borders
Journalists living in exile emphasized the centrality of these platforms to their work.
Bozkurt described how the Turkish government has gone after his work even in exile, targeting his investigative outlet, Nordic Monitor. “During the negotiations for NATO membership for Sweden and Finland, the Erdoğan government saw the opportunity to put a demand on the table asking the Swedish government to shut down my investigative website,” he said. “They said otherwise, we will not approve your membership.”
While Sweden rejected the demand, Bozkurt explained that Turkish authorities continue to use takedown requests and international pressure to silence exiled journalists. “They abuse the international mechanisms which are designed for something else,” he said. “They abuse the INTERPOL mechanism… They abused the mutual judicial assistance programs asking extradition.”
“I was attacked in broad daylight outside my home in Stockholm. It was a message to stop reporting on #Turkey’s intel ops but I won’t be silenced,” said journalist Abdullah Bozkurt @abdbozkurt at the panel organized by the @OthersInfo. pic.twitter.com/j45VQohayb
— Bünyamin Tekin (@Bunyamintekin0) May 8, 2025
Panelist Ahmed Gamal Ziada, an investigative journalist from Egypt and founder of the Zawia3 platform, spoke of how these dynamics affect exiled reporters. “I was here to advocate for freedom of press,” he said. “Then I couldn’t come back, because I knew that the regime of Egypt had filed a case against me. If I go back to Egypt, I will go to jail.”
Ziada said he had been imprisoned twice in Egypt, once for a year and a half and once after being forcibly disappeared for 15 days. After fleeing to Belgium, he worked as a food delivery driver while rebuilding his journalistic career. “I just decided to say to myself, I’m not a victim. I’m just a journalist, and I can do my work in Egypt or out of Egypt.”
He founded Zawia3 with a team of 27 reporters inside Egypt, focusing on corruption, human rights and political affairs. Despite funding challenges and internet blocks, the platform gained credibility, including recognition from UNESCO and partnerships with the Global Investigative Journalism Network.
Ziada detailed how Zawia3 uses “mirror” websites and plans to launch an app with a built-in VPN to bypass Egyptian censorship. “They blocked us twice, our main platform. Now we are trying to find another way to reach people,” he said.
On the EU’s response to repression in Egypt, Ziada was blunt: “You support freedom and democracy — and at the same time, you support the regime in Egypt.”
“We are not victims who need your training. We are experienced journalists who need your support,” says Egyptian journalist @AGamalZiada, founder of @zawiaa3, criticizing the EU’s approach to journalists in exile. pic.twitter.com/aMiqkC8AG3
— Bünyamin Tekin (@Bunyamintekin0) May 8, 2025
Advertising and surveillance reshape media ecosystems
Belgian journalist Karl van den Broeck, editor-in-chief of the Apache investigative platform, outlined how advertising-dependent media models have allowed Big Tech to dominate the information ecosystem. He explained how tech companies like Amazon and Meta have siphoned off revenue once used to fund newsrooms.
“Facebook is free, but of course you pay with your own identity,” he said. “And the traditional media corporations are following that strategy — they’re also spying on their readers.”
Van den Broeck warned of “a monster” emerging from the combination of corporate and state surveillance. “You have a big brother that even George Orwell would not have thought about,” he said.
“So that’s the situation we’re in now. And how can you fight that?
“You can fight that, but by not giving in to this business model. So that means that you have to convince people again that they have to pay for journalism. And maybe eventually we have to find ways that people who don’t have a lot of money can still have access to media.”
He emphasized Apache’s cooperative model, where 2,000 members own shares and fund journalism directly. “You can buy as many shares as you want, but you only have one vote in the general assembly,” he said. “Nobody can buy us.”
He called for stronger European regulations against monopolistic media ownership and more robust public funding for independent journalism.
Voices erased: female journalists under Taliban rule
Lailuma Sadid, a Brussels-based Afghan journalist and women’s rights advocate, provided the panel with a powerful testimony about the erasure of women’s voices in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. She described the banning of female journalists from working, appearing on screen, or even having their voices broadcast.
“This is not just censorship. It is erasure of women like me,” she said. “In 2024, [Afghanistan] ranked 178 out of 180 countries [in press freedom]. It means there is no press freedom at all in Afghanistan.”
Sadid, who mentors students and writes for En-Gaje and Brussels Morning, called for more concrete support for exiled journalists like herself. “We are not victims. We left our country to save ourselves,” she said. “But it’s difficult to work as a journalist in Belgium. I have my diploma, my experience, but I couldn’t find a job.”
Afghan journalist Lailuma Sadid @Lailuma9 highlights the silencing of women reporters under the Taliban and the daily struggles of exiled journalists. Echoing @AGamalZiada, she says: “We need meaningful support to keep reporting.” pic.twitter.com/34aUa0Jlqx
— Bünyamin Tekin (@Bunyamintekin0) May 8, 2025
She said journalism is her identity and that many exiled reporters work without pay to keep their voice alive. “Journalism is not a crime. Being a woman should never be a death sentence for telling the truth.”
EU legislation exists, but enforcement lags
Renate Schroeder, director of the European Federation of Journalists, emphasized the increasing use of spyware, surveillance and legal intimidation against reporters. “More and more journalists today are attacked because they are journalists,” she said.
She noted that over 1,400 attacks on journalists were recorded in the past year across Europe, with significant rises in both online and physical assaults, particularly during protests.
She described how even European governments have used spyware against reporters, citing a case in Italy where journalists were targeted by Predator spyware. Despite the adoption of the European Media Freedom Act, Schroeder warned that implementation remained weak and that some governments were twisting the legislation to justify surveillance.
Call for platform accountability under DSA and DMA
Speaking to Turkish Minute after the event, Schroeder, who leads Europe’s largest journalist federation, called on the European Commission to use its regulatory tools — particularly the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) — to demand transparency and accountability from major online platforms. She emphasized that while the legislation exists, enforcement has been inconsistent and slow.
“For years we have been talking about the need for a European platform, European digital infrastructure, which is less toxic. We don’t have it,” she said.
“So many journalists tell us we need social networks. And I don’t say social media here, I say social networks. We need it to be known, and it’s our only way. Also clickbait sometimes. It’s very important for us, for economic survival.”
“For us it’s very easy to say remain professional, ethical, and because we are dependent on those platforms. So I don’t have a response. I can only say that we at the European level are trying with the legislation we have in place now, the Digital Services Act, to make the platforms more transparent, more accountable.”
She explained that under the DSA, there are provisions concerning “systemic risks” to press freedom. “We had talks with some experts who are following [this issue], to also cover journalists [whose rights] are violated, be it by the algorithms that on purpose censor journalism or by the blocking of their accounts.”
“Or which is also very bad, you may have heard about spoofing, where journalist’s accounts are imitated by deep fakes, and that’s very dangerous for the trust and for the journalist because the content is not something you want to be close to.”
Existing legislation such as the DSA and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) would not suffice unless rigorously enforced. Schroeder said, “We also have the Digital Markets Act and that is more a question of competition. And we all know when it comes to competition there is none. Also when it comes to the advertising market and everything, it’s all in their hands.”
She reiterated, “But I can assure you we and many civil society organizations, digital rights organizations, are putting a lot of pressure on the commission on that. But it needs a lot of work.”