After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021, hundreds of Afghan journalists fled Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover.
Due to the Taliban’s violent suppression of criticism, journalists who stayed in Afghanistan risked being detained, tortured, disappeared or killed.
But thanks to safe refuge initiatives provided by multiple members of the Media Freedom Coalition, many journalists have been able to leave Afghanistan and continue working in safety. This has helped them to maintain their coverage of injustice and abuses, including women’s rights abuses, in their homeland.
Lotfullah Najafizada, co-founder and CEO of Amu TV was among the journalists that fled Afghanistan before receiving safe refuge in Canada.
“After the fall of Kabul, I had to go to a country and call it a second home, at least for now. And Canada was so generous to accept me as one of the 40,000 Afghans who migrated to Canada after the fall of Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban.”
Founded by a group of Afghan journalists, and led by Najafizada, Amu TV has quickly become a prominent exile TV channel, devised in response to the dire need for unbiased reporting and cultural content in Afghanistan.
“We’re rerouting the information in order to bypass the Taliban’s firewall. We may have access to information, but we don’t have the freedom to report it.”
Shogofa Danish, another Afghan journalist, fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took control. Despite the challenges of starting over, she was able to rebuild her career with support from Canadian organizations that connect journalists with media opportunities. “Through a fellowship, I worked as a digital journalist for Global News, which allowed me to rebuild my skills and continue my work,” she said. “This role provided me with the chance to rebuild my career, acquire new skills, and enhance my expertise in a country far from home.”
In 2020, the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, which advises member states of the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), highlighted the urgent need to provide safe refuge for journalists at risk. Their report, Providing Safe Refuge to Journalists at Risk, underscored the alarming reality that countless journalists are forced to flee their home countries each year to escape threats to their lives and safety. The report recommended the creation of emergency visas for journalists facing imminent danger.
Canada, along with other MFC member countries such as the Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Kosovo, and Costa Rica, has taken steps to offer refuge to journalists in need in recent years. In 2021, Canada introduced a dedicated refugee stream for human rights defenders (HRDs), including journalists, as part of its Government-Assisted Refugees Program. This initiative followed extensive consultations with the High Level Panel and was designed to help HRDs and their families escape persecution. Initially, Canada committed to resettling up to 250 individuals per year. However, by August 2022, Canada had already surpassed that goal, resettling 270 people. Recognizing the growing need, in July 2023, the Canadian government expanded the program, pledging to resettle up to 500 HRDs and their families annually.
Through these efforts, Canada continues to play a key role in providing sanctuary for journalists at risk, reaffirming its commitment to media freedom and the protection of human rights defenders worldwide.
Both Najafizada and Danish stress that safe refuge is more than just relocation. Najafizada noted that “safe refuge and initiatives like that gives you the wings to fly. And this is not just safety and refuge, this is the freedom. This is empowerment. This is self-confidence.”
“This is basically enabling you to do what you are trained to do and giving you rebirth.”
Danish echoed this sentiment: “Safe refuge is essential for journalists because it provides the security needed to report on oppressive regimes or groups without fear of retribution. For me personally, it means being able to advocate for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, many of whom are silenced under the Taliban’s regime.”
“Many of the women I interviewed were terrified of being identified or punished for speaking out. Being in a safe country gave me the privilege and responsibility to amplify their voices without compromising their safety or mine,” Danish emphasised.
“For me, safe refuge not only allows me to do my job but also to highlight the injustices and human rights abuses in my homeland.”
However, both journalists warn that offering refuge by itself is not enough. According to Najafizada safe refuge is “not just basically evacuating someone from a conflict environment and an at-risk environment, and taking them to a suburb of a relatively safer country.”
In order to truly protect press freedom, Najafizada explained, countries offering safe refuge need to provide support beyond the visa process.
“I think it’s important to also understand, the second part of that commitment is to enable that bird to fly. If we don’t do that, then that safety, that refuge in itself becomes a prison. You are imprisoned in your ideas and within the boundaries of what you cannot do.”
Danish also noted the importance of looking at all aspects of a journalist’s life within safe refuge. “When granting refuge to journalists, governments must recognize that it’s not only the journalists themselves who are at risk but often their families as well. Without ensuring their families’ safety, journalists may struggle to focus on their work.
For both, their work in exile is a commitment to preserving press freedom. “Safe refuge allows us to continue our work, give voice to the voiceless, and challenge oppressive regimes from afar,” Danish concluded.
Najafizada also highlighted the importance of recognition, noting that, “The recognition of Afghan journalists by Canada and the UK in New York was a testament that the Afghan media is not only provided safety, but they are also not forgotten.”
