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Overview:

As press freedom erodes across the globe, journalists, activists, and women from repressive societies are increasingly forced into permanent exile. Drawing from lived experience as a former journalist in India and supported by international human rights data, this article explores why returning home has become dangerous, how women are disproportionately affected, and why assimilation abroad is often the only path to survival when dissent is criminalized.

By Suzzy Majumder
Edited for Presence News

Exile is no longer temporary for journalists and activists fleeing repression—it is permanent.

As governments across the world tighten control over speech, protest, and independent reporting, thousands of journalists are being pushed into detention, silence, or irreversible exile. For many, returning home is no longer a question of career sacrifice—it is a question of survival.

Drawing from lived experience as a former journalist in India, alongside global press-freedom and migration data, this article examines why returning home has become impossible for many truth-tellers, why women are disproportionately affected, and why assimilation abroad is often the only remaining path when dissent is criminalized.

Table of Contents

  1. Growing Up Without Protection
  2. The Moment That Changed Everything
  3. Why Return Becomes Dangerous
  4. Exile Is No Longer Temporary
  5. The Global Toll on Journalists
  6. Women Migrating for Freedom
  7. Why Assimilation Becomes Survival
  8. Sources & References

1. Growing Up Without Protection

Leaving home is rarely an impulsive act. For journalists, activists, and dissenters from countries with declining human rights, it is often a last resort—driven not by ambition, but by fear for one’s safety, livelihood, and dignity.

I grew up in Tripura, a northeastern Indian state where journalism operates with limited institutional protection. Even today, the region lacks a dedicated journalism school. As a woman entering the profession in small towns, I faced more than professional hurdles: male-dominated newsrooms, routine discomfort, and societal shaming for “chasing stories with a microphone” instead of conforming to domestic expectations.

This period coincided with heightened media suppression. In 2017, two journalists were killed in India within a span of two months ahead of elections, a pattern documented by international watchdogs including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. Local newspapers and television channels were shut down, while journalists and photographers were summoned to police stations for questioning.

Fear became an unspoken occupational hazard.

Despite the risks, I continued reporting on governance and accountability. Threats and harassment escalated, and eventually, I had to relocate quietly for my own safety.

2. The Moment That Changed Everything

Against those odds, I earned a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in the United States. The most unforgettable moment came at the U.S. consulate in Delhi. After intense questioning, the officer looked up and said, “I approve your visa.”

That moment altered my life—likely permanently.

In the U.S., I encountered a reality where journalists could criticize power openly, protest without fear of arrest, and speak freely without calculating personal risk. I continued advocating for press freedom and was given platforms through the international community of the Society of Professional Journalists—opportunities that would have been inaccessible, or dangerous, back home.

3. Why Return Becomes Dangerous

India’s press-freedom crisis is well documented. In the 2024 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, India ranked 159 out of 180 countries, citing harassment, criminal prosecutions, and increasing pressure on independent media.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has repeatedly warned that journalists in India face arrests, online intimidation campaigns, and legal retaliation under national security and anti-terror laws.

Returning to India as a critical journalist today would mean operating under surveillance, legal uncertainty, and the real risk of detention. The difference between reporting freely and cautiously is not ideological—it is existential.

4. Exile Is No Longer Temporary

The experiences of journalists worldwide reflect this reality.

In 2009, journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were detained in North Korea while reporting and were released only after a high-level diplomatic mission led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Jean H. Lee, who later served as the Associated Press bureau chief in Pyongyang from 2011 to 2013, eventually chose to remain abroad after years of unprecedented access inside one of the world’s most repressive regimes.

Across Latin America, journalists continue to flee cartel and state violence. Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto, who exposed military corruption, spent 15 years fighting for asylum in the United States before finally being granted protection in 2023.

In India, Kashmiri journalists live in self-imposed exile to protect their families while continuing to report on regional abuses. Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo was barred from traveling abroad in 2022, a move widely criticized as an attempt to silence independent reporting.

In Hong Kong, authorities have issued arrest warrants and bounties for pro-democracy activists in exile while targeting their families at home, according to documentation by Human Rights Watch.

These cases reveal a pattern: exile is no longer a pause. It is permanent.

5. The Global Toll on Journalists

The danger is measurable, even if the human cost cannot be fully quantified.

According to the International Federation of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists, journalist killings have surged globally in recent years, particularly in conflict zones and authoritarian states. Hundreds more journalists face detention, legal harassment, or forced exile annually.

Reporters Without Borders has repeatedly warned that impunity for crimes against journalists continues to fuel violence, reinforcing a global climate where truth-telling is treated as a threat.

6. Women Migrating for Freedom

For women, the decision to leave is compounded by gendered constraints.

Women comprise roughly 48% of all international migrants, according to the United Nations. Research shows that women increasingly migrate from gender-unequal societies seeking autonomy, safety, and freedom of expression, not merely economic opportunity.

Female journalists and activists face layered risks: state repression, societal violence, and gender-based harassment. Even after migration, women refugees experience heightened vulnerability to exploitation, detention, and legal precarity—particularly under restrictive immigration regimes.

Migration, for many women, is not movement. It is escape.

7. Why Assimilation Becomes Survival

For asylum seekers and exiled journalists, returning home is not simply unsafe—it can invalidate claims of persecution. Voluntary return is often interpreted by authorities as evidence that no credible threat exists, stripping individuals of legal protection.

In recent years, thousands of Indians have been deported from various countries amid tightening immigration policies. Deportation does not equate to safety. Many returnees face questioning, surveillance, or renewed threats upon arrival.

Assimilation abroad becomes the only viable option—not as abandonment of home, but as preservation of self. For millions worldwide, exile is not chosen lightly. It is chosen because silence is no longer possible, and survival demands distance from repression.

Sources & References

Editor’s Disclaimer

This article is a first-person analysis reflecting the author’s lived experience as a former journalist and scholar. Factual references are drawn from publicly available reports by international press-freedom, human-rights, and migration organizations. Views expressed are the author’s own.

Susmita Majumder

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