Authoritarian convergence: how Russia, Iran and China reshape information ecosystems

Russia, Iran and China are increasingly learning from each other when it comes to digital control, from surveillance technologies and cyber operations to coordinated disinformation campaigns. These practices shape how information is restricted, manipulated and contested across borders.
For journalists working from exile, the consequences are immediate. Firewalls, shutdowns, platform restrictions, surveillance and pressure on sources and families make reporting increasingly difficult. Yet these pressures do not play out in the same way everywhere: the realities of reporting on China, Iran and Russia differ in important respects, from mobility and access to the very question of what “exile media” means.
This panel brings together journalists from Chinese, Iranian and Russian media working from exile to examine how reporting continues under these conditions. How do they define their role, and how do they remain relevant and trusted by audiences inside their countries? What forms of censorship, surveillance and pressure shape their work? And how are exile newsrooms adapting through source networks, technical circumvention, new reporting practices and cross-border collaboration?
By bringing these experiences into conversation, the panel will explore not only shared pressures, but also the potential of exile media to become spaces of experimentation, learning and innovation under authoritarian constraint.
Moderated by Filip Noubel.
Organised in association with JX Fund.