Dear Moni,
your friend has to register as an asylum-seeker if he wants to work in Germany. After three months he gets limited work permit and can work as an intern for example, even if his asylum-procedure is not finished yet. He needs a permission from the foreigners Authority thoug. ("Ausländerbehörde": https://***.hagen.de/web/de/fachbereiche/fb_32/fb_32_02/fb_32_0204/erwerbstaetigkeit.html).
Starting an own business is a little bit more complicated. For that he needs the confirmation as a refugee.
Here are more Informations in English and other languages:
https://refugees.telekom.de/en/living-in-germany/working/getting-a-job-124918
This Website can help to find work as a refugee: work-for-refugees.de
As a journalist your friend could also get in contact with some other journalists who are refugees too, like monis bukhari (https://***.facebook.***/monisbu).
I hope this helps somehow, all the best!
Milena