On 6 May the IRFS and the Media Diversity Institute Global held a discussion on the shrinking media freedom in South Caucasus and Central Asia. The event took place on the margins of the World Press Freedom Day 2025 in Brussels, organized by UNESCO.
The speakers and participants talked about main drivers behind challenges to free flow of information in the area, their impact on news journalism and the growing trend of relocation of newsrooms in exile.
The participants also looked into potential ways of keeping staff and channels of financing safe.
We are grateful to Teona Sekhniashvili (IPI) for the brilliant moderation, to Arsen Khataryan (Aliq Media), Irma Dimitradze (Gazeti Batumelebi), Ruslan Myatiev (Turkmen.News), Anna Kapushenko (Kloop.org), Luc Steinberg (MDI), Emin Huseynov (IRFS) and Diana Nazarets (IRFS) for valuable insights.
If you missed the panel and would like to listen in, here is the link: https://youtu.be/NnlnbRA7pq0?si=gZI5O4aFAl3gQGtr