News & Statements

The Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI), PEN Canada and Victoria University are pleased to welcome Lotfullah Najafizada as the 2026-27 PEN Canada Exiled Writer-in-Residence. Najafizada will join the JHI during its 2026-27 theme year, Doubles, Doppelgangers.

Lotfullah Najafizada is an Afghan journalist and the founder and CEO of Amu TV, an independent satellite news and current affairs channel serving audiences in Afghanistan and the diaspora. He previously served as director of TOLOnews, Afghanistan’s leading 24-hour news channel, from 2009 to 2021, and has spent nearly two decades working in journalism and media leadership. He has interviewed political leaders from Afghanistan and around the world and moderated Afghanistan’s televised presidential debate in 2019. His work focuses on press freedom, public debate, and sustaining independent journalism under repression and in exile. In 2024, he received the joint UK-Canada Press Freedom Award.

Fellowship Project

The Line that Outlasts Repression

During his fellowship, Najafizada will reflect, through writing and presentations, on why exile does not have to mean the end of meaningful work or public impact. Drawing on his own experience, he will tell the story of Amu TV, an independent Afghan television network built after the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and shut down, or drove into exile, most of the country’s independent media. Broadcasting via satellite and digitally into Afghanistan, Amu TV brings together journalists inside and outside the country to ensure both access to information and freedom of reporting. Najafizada will discuss what it takes to run a TV network for a country you cannot enter: how a newsroom scattered across time zones stays accountable to the audience it serves, and what exile makes possible that staying might not.

About the Fellowship

The PEN Canada Exiled Writer-in-Residence is a fellowship offered by PEN Canada, Victoria University and the Jackman Humanities Institute, running from September 2026 to April 2027. Based at the JHI, the Exiled Writer-in-Residence will serve as a guest speaker in Victoria University classes and work with students, faculty and staff to deliver presentations and facilitate conversations on freedom of expression and humanistic exchange beyond borders.