Two Months in Exile: What It Means to Be a Journalist Without a Country

It has been two months since I fled my country.

Not left.Not moved.Not relocated.

Fled.

Becoming a refugee was never my choice.

Exile Was Not an Option — Prison Was

When I left Georgia, I technically had options. I could have stayed. I could have waited. I could have hoped things would change.

But under Georgian Dream — an authoritarian regime — staying would have meant arrest. And from a prison cell, I would not be able to do anything: no reporting, no documenting, no resistance. Just silence.

So I fled.

I came to Belgium and asked for international protection. Not because I wanted a new life, but because survival left me no other decision.

Poverty Is Not Abstract — It’s Physical

Poverty is often discussed as a statistic. It isn’t one.

Poverty is pressing a button every 10–15 seconds just to keep water running while you shower.

Poverty is not choosing what you eat — it’s eating whatever is prepared for you, whether it fits your health, culture, or dignity or not.

Poverty is having no income and no legal right to work because four months haven’t passed yet.

Poverty is walking into a shared toilet and playing a small mental game:Will it be clean — or will there be shit on the seat, the floor, or the door?

I miss small things.I miss controlling water pressure on a faucet.I miss clean bathrooms.I miss independence.

These details sound insignificant — until they are taken away.

Nostalgia Turns Into Anger

I miss Georgia deeply.

And every time nostalgia visits me, it brings anger with it.

Because becoming a refugee was never my choice. I never wanted to abandon my country.

I wanted to leave to study, to grow, to develop myself — and then return. I wanted to live and work in Georgia. I

wanted to help make it better, day by day.

From childhood, I believed something strongly: Gen Z would shape this country’s future.

One day, it would be us governing institutions, making decisions, defining values. That belief shaped everything I did.

Why I Founded JSN Media

When I founded JSN Media, journalism was never just about reporting breaking news.

I saw a dangerous gap.

Georgia’s education system failed to teach modern history, communication, politics, economics, philosophy, and social responsibility. It failed to prepare people to understand power, manipulation, and accountability.

So media had to step in.

Not because it wanted to — but because it had to.

We launched JSN History, explaining Georgia’s modern history in engaging formats:from Russian Empire occupation, to independence in 1918, Soviet re-occupation, independence again in 1991, and the events that shaped us along the way.

We launched JSN Economics, explaining basics:what taxes are, how the economy works, and the structural difference between being poor and being wealthy.

These are things every human should understand in order to live freely and to recognize when power is abusing them.

Our mission was education through journalism — because without informed citizens, democracy becomes performance, not reality.

Journalism Is Being Murdered — Again

Leaving Georgia was never my choice.

Yet today, Mzia Amaglobeli, founder of Batumelebi / Netgazeti, is imprisoned for doing journalism honestly.

What is happening now is not new.

We saw it during the Russian Empire.We saw it during the Soviet Union.

Educated people were killed or exiled. Journalists, thinkers, intellectuals — the backbone of society — were removed.

Russia is trying to reclaim its imperial status again. Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, and authoritarian power structures are helping suffocate Georgian media and civil society.

Silence is not accidental. It is intentional.

The Loneliness of Journalism in Exile

I don’t know what my future looks like.

I never imagined I would be here — living in poverty, navigating asylum systems, and discovering how little support exists for journalists in exile.

Sometimes it feels like the world is tired of the truth. Like truth has become inconvenient.

But without journalists:lies spread faster than facts,darkness replaces accountability,power goes unchecked,and ordinary people suffer quietly.

Journalists do not create truth.We find it, verify it, and defend it.

Without that process, societies collapse slowly — and silently.

I Am Still Here

I pray.I survive.I try to navigate this new world one day at a time.

Exile tries to erase you.Poverty tries to shrink you.Fear tries to silence you.

But truth has survived worse.

And so have journalists.