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In this episode of Dictators v Democrats: Why We Fight, we speak with Mamatjan Juma, a veteran Uyghur journalist and one of the most important voices documenting China’s repression in Xinjiang.

For nearly two decades, Juma reported for Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, helping to expose the reality of mass internment, forced labour, family separation and the systematic erasure of Uyghur identity. His reporting was among the first to bring credible, source-based evidence of the camps to the outside world — long before governments were willing to name them for what they were.

That work came at a devastating personal cost. Like many Uyghur journalists, Juma has seen members of his own family targeted by the Chinese state, a reminder that authoritarian power does not stop at borders and does not distinguish between professional reporting and collective punishment.

We discuss how independent Uyghur journalism has survived under extraordinary pressure, how Beijing wages transnational repression against exiled journalists, and why the closure of trusted outlets makes new initiatives like the Uyghur News Network more vital than ever.

This conversation is not only about Xinjiang. It is about truth under dictatorship, the fragility of press freedom, and what democracies lose when crimes against humanity are allowed to fade into the background noise of global politics.

Episode bullet points

• Who Mamatjan Juma is and why his journalism matters
• How early Uyghur-language reporting exposed the internment camps
• The personal cost of reporting on Xinjiang from exile
• China’s use of intimidation, surveillance and family punishment
• Transnational repression beyond China’s borders
• The collapse of legacy platforms and the rise of new Uyghur media
• How journalists verify information under total state control
• What democracies risk by looking away from Xinjiang

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In this special and unusually candid episode of Dictators v Democrats: Why We Fight, we speak to an anonymous American investor who has privately channelled close to half a million dollars into Ukrainian frontline units fighting Russia’s invasion.

At his request, this interview is audio-only and his voice has been altered.

Our guest explains what drove him, as a private citizen, to step far beyond conventional charity and into direct support for military units. Drawing on first-hand relationships with Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers, he outlines how crowdfunding, “angel investors”, and rapid private procurement have become decisive factors on the battlefield. From drones and electronic warfare to logistics and innovation, he describes how Ukrainian units increasingly function like start-ups, adapting faster than traditional military supply chains ever could.

The conversation goes beyond hardware. We discuss Bucha and occupied territories, the moral calculus of inaction, and why he believes delays and half-measures translate directly into civilian suffering. He addresses the legal and ethical objections often raised in the West, arguing that they collapse when confronted with mass atrocities and imperial aggression.

The episode also tackles the information war. Our guest explains how Russian propaganda exploits religious, political and cultural divisions in the United States and Europe, and why Ukraine, in his view, represents a clearer moral line than many past conflicts.

He speaks openly about faith, freedom, responsibility, and why he believes Ukraine’s fight is inseparable from the future of democracy in the West.

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In this episode of Dictators v Democrats: Why We Fight, we speak with Jakub Kalenský, one of Europe’s leading experts on disinformation, hybrid threats, and information warfare.

Jakub is Deputy Director at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki and a former senior figure behind the EU’s flagship EUvsDisinfo initiative. For over a decade, he has worked at the sharp end of efforts to expose and counter authoritarian influence operations, particularly those originating from the Kremlin.

We explore how modern disinformation campaigns actually work, why repetition and scale matter more than persuasive narratives, and why democracies remain structurally vulnerable in the information space. Jakub lays out his “four lines of defence” for countering disinformation, from detection and data collection to deterrence and punishment, and explains why Western governments consistently underinvest in this fight.

The conversation also examines how artificial intelligence is accelerating information warfare, enabling mass content production, micro-targeting, and more sophisticated language use — while also offering potential defensive tools for democracies. We discuss the role of social media platforms, the limits of free speech arguments, and whether the information space should be treated as critical national infrastructure.

Finally, we turn to values: democracy, freedom, and why Ukraine has become the defining frontline in the global struggle against authoritarianism — not just militarily, but informationally.

This is a wide-ranging, unsparing look at one of the most consequential and least understood battlefields of our time.

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