Focusing on the Sorush newspaper published in Istanbul as a case of Iranian journalism in exile, this paper seeks to shed light on one aspect of Persian journalism in the constitutional period. On the eve of the 1906 Constitutional Revolution, Persian journalism entered into a critical phase that flourished outside the country. Istanbul, Calcutta, Cairo and London were the centres where Iranian intellectuals developed their critical ideas through this modern media. Inspired by these ideas, the Constitutional Revolution prepared an unprecedented situation for Iranian journalists to develop their flourishing career inside the country. It was in this period that a distinguished constitutionalist and intellectual Ali Akbar Dehkhoda began his journalistic career. Together with Mirza Jahangir Khan Shirazi, he began to publish Sur-e Esrafil, which presented a straightforwardly critical voice against Qajar despotism. Yet the passing flame of political freedom died out by the restoration of despotism and forced Dehkhoda and some of his colleagues to leave their homeland. He first went to Switzerland and then to Istanbul, where he continued his career in exile and published a new Persian-language newspaper by the name of Sorush. An analysis of this short-lived newspaper allows us to identify three pivotal concerns in its pages: advocacy of constitutionalism, opposition to imperialism and defending Iran's independence and territorial integrity, and the last but not the least, reflecting on Iran's first experience in constitutionalism. Indeed, for Dehkhoda and his colleagues in Sorush of İstanbul, securing an independent and well-integrated Iran was the most critical issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]