Exiled Afghan journalist Baktash Siawash visited the University of Oregon, sharing his family’s story of loss, survival, and the rising global threat to press freedom — even in exile.

For exiled Afghan journalist Baktash Siawash, a trip to the United States once seemed improbable. Yet Siawash arrived in Eugene in June for a weeklong visit to the University of Oregon — speaking with students and faculty about the dangers of reporting under authoritarian, and now Taliban, rule in Afghanistan and the toll of exile — a toll paid with the lives of his brother and father.

On June 5, Siawash met with fellow members of the UO UNESCO Crossings Institute — including myself — for a tour of Allen Hall, home of the UO School of Journalism and Communication.

As we walked through the SOJC’s state-of-the-art podcast and television studios, outfitted with soundboards that cost more than what many Afghan workers earn in seven years, the contrast was stark. Standing inside facilities that are part of a $15 million renovation, Siawash reflected on his former studio in Afghanistan — where the old lights gave off so much heat that guests and hosts would sweat through airtime.

As we passed the “J-Cage,” stocked with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of the latest gear — all free for students to check out — Siawash was struck by the fact that these resources were part of a university, not a professional newsroom.

We stocked Siawash up with every student publication imaginable — from FLUX Magazine, The Daily Emerald, Ethos, Green Eugene and more. As he flipped through the pages, it served as a quiet reminder of the freedom students here have to report, create and publish without fear.

We then made the short walk over to the Emerald offices to show him the inside of our independent student newsroom. Siawash sat down on the couch and began to tell his story — how he fled from Afghanistan to India to Germany, how he and his father once picked up the pieces of his brother’s lifeless body from the street after his car was rigged with a bomb.

His brother, a news host and investigative journalist, had been targeted and killed by what was then the Afghan government. When speaking about him, Siawash carried a striking clarity.

“In Afghanistan,” he said, “we had freedom of speech — but not freedom after speech.”

He explained that while his brother had the right to broadcast the news, he paid the ultimate price for using that freedom — a distinction often overlooked. As global authoritarianism and press restrictions continue to rise, Siawash warned of a growing form of repression that doesn’t silence voices at the microphone, but erases them afterward.

According to a recent UNESCO report, nearly one journalist is killed every four days, showing retaliation is a rising form of press freedom oppression.

On June 6, during a book launch for “Don’t Shoot the Journalists: Migrating to Stay Alive” — a collection to which Siawash contributed a chapter — he recounted how, after relocating to Germany and continuing to report on Afghanistan from exile, his father left the house one day and never returned. Three days later, his body was found floating in a nearby river.

While the official cause of death and those responsible remain unknown, there is little doubt it was connected to the family’s work in journalism, said book editor and UNESCO Crossings Chair Peter Laufer.

Following the story, there was hardly a dry eye in the room. Not only had Siawash’s father likely been murdered for his family’s role in reporting on the Taliban — he had been murdered in a sovereign European nation, while his son was enrolled in a program designed to protect exiled journalists from exactly this kind of retaliation.

As reporting from exile becomes an increasingly common mode of journalism amid rising press freedom restrictions, his story served as a stark reminder: nowhere is truly safe.

Even after losing both his brother and father, Siawash said he could not and would not give in to fear. If he stopped reporting for the sake of his own safety — or his family’s — the Taliban would win, he explained, and “get what they wanted.”

After the event, we spoke over lunch about how more than 20 years of U.S. foreign policy and military presence shaped Afghanistan — and how quickly it all unraveled following the sudden withdrawal and return of Taliban rule.

Siawash spoke about the way media coverage often conflates Afghans with the Taliban, reinforcing harmful stereotypes. This, he said, gives outside countries an excuse to look away — to ignore the strict Islamic laws now in place that have stripped away nearly all rights from women and the press.

Despite it all, Siawash continues to report on Afghanistan, driven by a belief that truth still matters — even when it comes at the ultimate cost.