''You may exile the journalist, but you can not exile journalism" : a case study of exiled journalists from Turkey living in Sweden

Abstract: Turkey, the country of failed and "successful" military coups, experienced the latest coup attempt on July 15, 2016, in which it is still unclear how, why, and by whom it originated. However, after this critical event, Turkish media and critical journalists were subjected to very strict censorship and repression. Hundreds of journalists were arrested for their views, and many had to flee the country to escape the crackdown on free media and freedom of expression in general. Even after more than seven years This paper presents a case study of Turkish and Kurdish journalists in exile who fled to Sweden after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. The aim of this research is to explore concepts such as exile journalism, censorship, freedom of expression, diaspora and diasporic ambivalences in this particular case. In order to understand the reasons for these journalists' exile, their migration stories and their backgrounds, this study used media ethnographic methods in combination with ten qualitative interviews. This study shows that the failed coup of July 15, 2016 was a turning point that transformed Turkey into a more complicated and authoritarian 'democracy' that resulted in the media being 'not free' and many journalists going into exile and many others being imprisoned. As we have seen in this case, many journalists who ended up in exile in Sweden were able to find different ways to do journalism in exile because they felt obligated to be free and to have resources to inform their audiences in the diaspora and in their home country. This study also explored that many of these journalists experience diasporic ambivalences due to their fragile political identities and positioning vis-à-vis their homeland, which also affect their daily lives in Sweden.