The World Overheard 1

The World Overheard is a series of conversations about journalism, translation, and power, developed by Translator – an independent magazine of translated journalism and non-fiction from beyond the Anglosphere – in dialogue with Ibraaz. 

We begin with a roundtable that asks how exile reshapes voice, how displaced media sustains community, what it means to translate across borders – in more than language – and what happens when the conditions of exile begin to change. Speakers include Alaa Abd el-Fattah and Lotfullah Najafizada joining remotely, and Ricardo Avelar, Vanessa Tsehaye, Negin Shiraghaei, and Galileo Cheng participating in person. The panel is moderated by Charles Emmerson, editor of Translator.

Exile has become one of the defining structures of independent media. Governments have grown sophisticated in their efforts to silence critical coverage – not only through imprisonment and censorship, but through legal frameworks, financial pressure, and digital surveillance that follow journalists and activists across borders. The tools of silencing do not distinguish cleanly between the press and those who simply insist on being heard. From Hong Kong to El Salvador, Russia, Afghanistan, Egypt and beyond – what does it take to keep a story alive when everything around it is working to silence it? What is lost, and what is made, in the process?

Doors open at 5.30pm; events starts at 6pm and ends at 8pm.

Speaker details:

Alaa Abd el-Fattah is a British-Egyptian writer and software developer. He is one of Egypt’s most high-profile political prisoners since the 2011 revolution and was imprisoned for over 12 years by the Egyptian government; during his incarceration, his campaign received global attention for his continued resistance. He was released on September 22, 2025. He has been published in numerous outlets; is well-known for founding the blog aggregator omraneya.net; and has been involved in a number of citizen journalism initiatives. His book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, which compiles some of his deeply influential writings, has received widespread acclaim.

Ricardo Avelar is a Salvadoran journalist and editor covering democratic backsliding; former political editor at El Diario de Hoy and digital storytelling strategist at Revista Factum. He has been based in London since 2023 after facing credible threats and spyware targeting in El Salvador.

Lotfullah Najafizada is an Afghan journalist and the Founder and CEO of Amu TV, a Washington, DC-based international news channel for Afghanistan, broadcasting via satellite and digital platforms to Afghan audiences at home and abroad. He was Director of TOLOnews TV (2009–2021), Afghanistan’s largest news network. During his tenure, he hosted Afghanistan’s only televised presidential debate in 2019 and interviewed numerous global leaders. In 2024, he received the joint UK-Canada Press Freedom Award at the UN General Assembly in New York on behalf of his fellow Afghan journalists. He was named Journalist of the Year by One Young World in 2022 and awarded the Press Freedom Hero Medal by Reporters Without Borders in 2016.

Vanessa Tsehaye is a Swedish-Eritrean human rights campaigner, journalist and filmmaker. She is the executive director of One Day Seyoum, a leading human rights organisation focused on Eritrea and Eritrean refugees. She is currently directing her documentary feature debut and working on Al Jazeera's flagship media review show The Listening Post. She previously led Amnesty International's campaigning work in the Horn of Africa. Her writing has appeared in CNN, Al Jazeera English, Mail & Guardian and Buzzfeed News amongst other publications. She holds a law degree from SOAS, University of London.

Negin Shiraghaei is an Iranian-British feminist, political activist and a former BBC Persian TV news anchor. She is the founder and director of Azad Network, a grassroots initiative committed to centering and elevating the voices of Iran’s marginalized groups.

Galileo Cheng is a London and Vancouver-based freelance investigative journalist, editor, and photojournalist. Formerly an editor for a UK-based overseas Hong Kong media outlet, his reporting has been featured in both Hong Kong and international publications. He is currently specialising in research on disinformation, transnational repression, and the evolution of overseas Hong Kong media landscapes.

Charles Emmerson (Moderator) is the editor of Translator and the author of three books. His essays and criticism have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, New Lines, and the Times Literary Supplement. He is currently working on a book retelling European history from the margins and a podcast about exiles as links between British and global histories.

Image credit: Ullustration by Somnath Bhatt