Journalists for Change: reporting on the internal situation from abroad

Dear friends, the FES Regional Office “Dialogue Eastern Europe” is pleased to invite you to take part in a workshop for journalists, bloggers and media activists from the countries of the Eastern Partnership Region, who have had to leave their countries and continue to work in their field from abroad. Our workshop will take place from the 6th to 10th November 2022 in Warsaw.

Having to leave your motherland and/or your hometown has become a sad reality for many journalists in our region in recent years. In fact, this does not only apply to journalists from Ukraine or Belarus (countries which might come to your mind first right now), but also to professionals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova. Two main causes for this are authoritarian rulers who make independent journalism within their country (almost) impossible) or, of course – war.

In some cases whole editorial teams had to restart abroad, in other cases journalists work as freelancers from their new country or city of residence. In almost all cases this brings many challenges with it: be it professional, psychological, administrative, financial or security challenges.

How to continue professional and high-quality work from abroad? How to get access to blocked information and retain an audience in your respective home country/region? How secure is a journalist abroad? Where to find support?

Our three-day seminar will take a closer look at these and other related questions. We will meet activists, politicians and media experts from across the region and try to learn how to deal with these difficult matters.

Program conditions

• The working language of the workshop is English.

• All costs related to the program will be covered by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

• Participation is mandatory during the entire three-day program.

Candidate requirements

• Citizenship of one of the Eastern Partnership countries

• At least 1 year of professional experience in a media outlet

• Experience with living and working from abroad / outside of the region you are from

• Fluency in English

Application process

To apply, please fill in the registration form

The application deadline is September 30th 11:59 pm (CET time). Applications which are submitted after this deadline will not be accepted. The results will be announced on October 7th. Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an online interview. The organization team aims to ensure a gender balance.

Please note that you might need a valid vaccination certificate due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions.