... is that there is no such thing; and furthermore, that such a thing is not possible.
Leaving aside the more obvious issues of financing and of hunting and hiring competent people, your Journalist Joe must find a public for his texts. As soon as Joe has a following of sorts, that is, people consistently reading his intellectual products, then Joe becomes a so-called influencer and his influencin' is then necessarily a political act1. As soon as his readership grows to a significant number relative to some particular population, e.g. the set of people speaking the same language, Joe will start drawing attention to himself, which will necessarily identify him with respect to some adversary or another on the political scene. This state of affairs is perhaps escapable in some fairyland where sheep and wolves go out drinking schnapps while making fun of the shepherd's dog; but only there and there alone.
This so-called "problem" is not limited to journalism either. Whether you're making some high-tech piece of software or selling trinkets by the road, you are only able to sell your wares under the watchful eye of some authority or another -- you need some "back", as they say in the hood. Whether said authority is a state, some non-statal organization or a very powerful individual is not really relevant nor is it interesting with respect to this discussion. The same feudal principle applies whether the political environment you inhabit is nominally democratic, communist or whatever other modernist mumbo-jumbo you've been indoctrinated with these past few centuries. This, incidentally, is also why any such pretense to independence may be merely attempted for a short while given ample resources; but at the end of the day...
At the end of the day, the problem is yours alone to bear, since that which you so impudently call a "problem" is merely the natural state of things.