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"You need a North Korean accent to be credible and convincing," explained Kim Seong-min, who runs Free North Korea Radio based in Seoul, established in 2004. He said the voice of a South Korean announcer does not work as it would be viewed automatically as propaganda. In the past five years, the radio station has been condemned by the North Korean government 21 times, including several assassination attempts and bombing threats against him and his office.

Kim was sharing his experience of his clandestine radio broadcasts with members of exiled media from Burma, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Gambia, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and Iran.

This was the first time the exiled media community came into contact with a North Korean broadcaster.

In Budapest, last week, Kim told them about his escape from North Korea's army and the transformation he went through to become a radio journalist.

"When I was in the army, I listened to foreign broadcasts. For a long time, I wanted to write poetry and things about the Korean culture," he said.

He defected to South Korea via China in 1999. When former president Ryo Moon-hyun came to power in 2004, the Seoul government was friendly towards North Korea. Kim said it was the time to stand up and speak out for North Korean defector communities living in Korea. "We have families and relatives inside. We want to give them information from this side."

Despite different languages, cultural and political systems, these unique exiled journalists had more in common than meets the eye when they discussed their goals or dreams. Surprisingly, after a long session of dialogue, they realised that the public in their countries must have access to information from a variety of sources. They contended that the exiled media are one of the sources of information, challenging those outlets run and controlled by various dictatorial governments around the world. These journalists, almost all of them, have been either jailed or harassed. They want to provide alternative information to their countrymen and women. In addition, they see eye-to-eye on the role of journalists in speaking the truth even if they have to face unfathomed consequences that could take their lives or those of other loved ones.

Galima Bukhabaeva, editor-in-chief of Uznews based in Germany, has gone through it all. She told her story as a young journalist writing about the Uzbekistan government and its ever-lasting President Islam Karimov since 1991. From being one of the most popular journalists in her country, in few short years she has gradually become an enemy of state. She was ostracised and isolated as she began to ask inquisitive questions that upset the government and its leader.

In a media environment controlled by all state organs, it was difficult to function independently. She covered the Andijan massacre in May 2005, when government troops fired at unarmed civilians and killed hundreds. She almost got killed by government tanks. Three days after the incident, she left Taskent.

Charged, jammed, arrested, jailed, bombed were words frequently used by John Masuku, Director of Voice of the People, Zimbabwe, talking about his plight and his radio station in Harare. He could easily identify all forms of government harassments that Galima talked about earlier. Zimbabwe has been under the media microscope for the past years due to the continuous atrocities committed by President Robert Mugabe. At least 3,500 people died each week from starvation and the healthcare system has collapsed. The exiled media from Zimbabwe are the most active. Short-wave radio has become the most effective instrument to disseminate alternative information on Zimbabwe. For instance, Short Wave Radio Africa broadcasts daily from its London-based studio, with uncensored information and reports by Zimbawean journalists back home. The English-language, Zimbabwean, published in the UK and South Africa, is currently faced with 70 per cent import tariff to discourage sales inside the country. "Nothing can stop us from telling the truth," said Wilf Mbanga, the paper's editor-in-chief

For Kamran Ashtary of Radio Zamaneh based in Amsterdam, the truth must be told in a non-partisan way. This three-year-old Persian short-wave radio is focusing its attention on young Iranian listeners between 18-35 years old. Kamran was sanguine about his mission that it offers a democratic platform and gives voice to both professional and citizen reporters. He added the average Iranians are widely read and highly opinionated people. "They do not like the so-called independent media. What they need is information that is perceived as fair," he said.

The exiled media from Tunisia and Gambia are facing a common uphill task: how to convince the rest of the world their governments are dictatorships with controlled media.

"Tunisia is perceived as a nice tourist spot, no repression but that is not true," said Sihem Bensedrine, director, Kalima On-line, Tunisia. So, it is hard to draw attention to the media oppression inside such a country. The same is true for Gambia, a small Eastern African country, which borders Senegal. Alternative Gambian Voices, based in Dakar, has to buy local frequencies to broadcast unfiltered news back to Gambia.

Exiled journalists from Africa and Central Asia have been impressed with the news coverage and technological skills of the clandestine news network established by the New Delhi-based Mizzima News Agency and Oslo-based multimedia Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). Both have helped spread out news on Burmese suppression and killings of monks and civilians during the Saffron Revolution in September 2007. Numerous video footages, shot by a DVB army of underground reporters, including the clip of a Japanese video journalist shot by the Burmese soldiers, have awoken the global conscience of the real situation inside Burma. Indeed, the experience of underground journalists inside Burma has been made into a film titled Burmese VJ (video journalists) by a Danish director, Anders Ostergaard. The film has won several awards since it was shown a few months ago in various film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival.