For decades, newspaper El Nacional was one of the most important media outlets in Venezuela. After years of harassment by Venezuelan authorities, its headquarters were seized in 2021. Currently, its newsroom is managed remotely and many of its journalists are located outside the country.
Thanks to the employment program of a new network for journalists in exile, the publication hired two journalists working from Spain in November.
“For us, it is an opportunity to finance the work of journalists who, for one reason or another, have had to go into exile, thus enhancing our ability to offer more and better information,” José Meza, editor in chief of El Nacional, told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). “The program allows us to help journalists in exile and also gives us the opportunity to rely on proven, well-known, experienced resources.”
Seized headquarters of the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional. (Photo: El Nacional)
In mid-November, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) launched the Latin American Network of Journalism in Exile (RELPEX, for its initials in Spanish). It’s based on two pillars centered on providing resources and employment assistance.
“While it is true that there are a significant number of organizations that provide programs and resources for people who have to leave their countries due to threats and other risks linked to the practice of journalism, the truth is that once the emergency has passed, these people are forced to work in something other than journalism,” Salvadoran journalist Mariana Belloso, coordinator of RELPEX and project manager for the IAPA, told LJR.
"So the powers that forced them to leave their countries (drug trafficking, totalitarian governments, etc.) are fulfilling their duty to silence journalists, because journalists are forced to work in something else in order to survive," she added.
As part of the network, the IAPA, in conjunction with DW Akademie, UNESCO and the Institute for Press and Freedom of Expression (IPLEX) of Costa Rica, built a unique platform – still under construction – where journalists in exile will be able to find legal, psychosocial, financial and emergency resources.
The second pillar of the initiative is support for and direct attention to journalists in exile. This includes an employment program that will benefit 10 Latin American journalists, including those from El Nacional.
The IAPA offers participating media outlets $500 each month to supplement the salaries of contracted journalists, Belloso said.
Belloso also explained that RELPEX has received seed capital from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) of USD $45,000 for the first year.
“That is why we are only covering a limited number of journalists, but we are constantly looking for funds, resources and alliances that will allow us to make this permanent,” she said.
Newsrooms in Central America, Venezuela and Cuba are also participating in the employment program. But, RELPEX will also support media operating outside those countries. Sixty percent of the journalists participating in this first employment program will be hired by media outlets operating from exile.
Periodismolibre.org is a unique platform where journalists in exile will be able to find legal, psychosocial, financial and emergency resources. (Photo: Screenshot)
Belloso is also a journalist in exile. She left El Salvador after her phone was infected with Pegasus spyware in 2021. Before, in 2019, she had begun to receive digital attacks for making comments on X (formerly Twitter) about President Nayib Bukele’s administration.
For hundreds of Latin American journalists, exile is the only solution they’ve found to escape the violence, threats and persecution they face in their countries.
The IAPA documented a growing number of journalists in exile in recent years, especially from countries such as Nicaragua, Venezuela, Guatemala, Cuba and Ecuador, or from Mexico and Colombia, where internal displacements have been recorded.
The organization has considered journalism in exile a priority, so much so that it awarded Journalism in Exile the 2024 Grand Prize for Press Freedom, in homage to Latin American journalists and media outlets that continue their work despite adverse circumstances.
“We are trying to make it a comprehensive effort that supports both journalists and media outlets that have had to leave. We know that this is a situation that will continue to worsen,” Belloso said. “The idea is to be able to support these people who have stopped doing journalism (due to lack of work permits, job offers, etc.) so they can continue practicing the profession.”
