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After six years of violence, murder and blatant disregard of the law the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte is history. His successor Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who had won the election by a landslide margin, was sworn in on June 30th. But there is little joy in the South East Asian island state. The new president's style of Government might be more subtle than the brutal and often vulgar approach of his predecessor. But like Duterte, Bongbong Marcos is no friend of independent free media. His is set to rehabilitate his father's image. Ellen Tordesillas, an investigative journalist from Manila and...

The deconstruction of Yugoslavia ended with the declaration of independence of Kosovo in 2008. But nothing of the traumatic experiences of 15 years of war has been forgotten since. The Kosovar journalist Visar Duriqi talks not only about the political stumbling blocks on the way to a lasting peace. His dire prediction for the troubled region is a new wave of murderous violence - if the EU doesn't get its act together and gets back into the political driver's seat.

On February 1, 2021 the Burmese military seized power deposing the legitimate government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Since then, roughly 10,000 citizens have been arrested, 2,000 more have been killed. The journalist Mary Wine knew that she couldn't face the same destiny any time. So she left her job and fled to a neighboring country where she joined the Burmese resistance movement. Since then the young woman has been invited by the Hamburg Foundation for politically persecuted People to its temporary shelter program. Even though she doesn't expect an early end toi military rule, Mary...

For Tajik journalists talking or writing facts comes at a high price: The regime of President Rahmon never forgets - and never forgives. To avoid years in prison and the danker of physical and psychological torture Humayro Bakhtyiar, like so many others before and since, had to leave her home country.

Vladimir Putin sees himself as the renovator of the old Russian empire. Recep Tayyib Erdogan dreams of a Neo Ottoman dominion. The Belarusian journalist Alex Znatkevich, Turkish TV-Journalist Murat Utgur and the Kurdish-Iraqi analyst Kamal Chomani debate a dangerous geopolitical powergame.

Since the stolen elections in August 2020 Belorussian jails are overcrowded with political prisoners. Torture and extrajudicial killings are daily routine. On the International day of Human Rights Belorussian writers in exile Julia Cimafiejeva and Alhierd Bacharevic claim that "tolerated by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Europ's last dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko has installed a fascist regime comparable to Nazi Germany."
Since they had to leave Belarus, the couple has found temporary shelter with the "Writer in Exile" Program of the city of Graz in Austria.

Already at the age of 20, Shammi Haque was a seasoned and widely known social activist, blogger and journalist. Most of her topics touched on tabus within the conservative and patriarchal society. But when she started to write about the growing influence of radical political Islam her life changed dramatically. She was threatened with rape and murder. Numerous of her blogger friends were killed. That was the moment the young woman decided she had to leave. Today Shammi lives in Germany. She has mastered the language up to the point to work at a German newspaper. "I enjoy my freedom...

The young journalist and analyst Kamal Chomani had to flee his homeland after opposing the referendum for independence called for by the Kurdish leadership. Even though today he is living in Germany, the former guest of the Hamburg Foundation for politically persecuted people hasn't stopped fighting for democracy and human rights just in Kurdistan. "Iraqi from all walks of life are fed up with the system!"

Shahindha Ismail tried hard to convince her co-citizens of the importance of the Universal Human rights. Universal Rights. But when islamic extremists threatened to burn her alive and the government and its institutions failed to guarantee her safety, Shahindha knew that it was time to leave the South Asian Island nation which holiday makers from around the world consider paradise..

Life seemed promising to Heval Bozbay - until he started to criticize the Turkish minister of Culture. The young Kurdish academic was banned from all excavations. He was fired by his university and threatened by President Erdogan, the courts, islamists and right-wing nationalists. Today, from exile in Hamburg/Germany, he's stubbornly working for peace in his Kurdish homeland. And for the fulfillment of his dream of being an archaeologist.