Dear Press Freedom Supporter,
For more than 250 days, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been detained in Russia, falsely accused of espionage. CPJ and other press freedom advocates have repeatedly demanded Russian authorities release him.
Now another journalist—Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and a dual U.S.-Russian citizen—has been in Russian detention since October 18. “As a human being and an American citizen, Alsu is entitled to certain rights and her rights must be upheld by the Russian government,” Pavel Butorin, Kurmasheva’s husband, told CPJ in an interview. “We should mount pressure on Russia to [achieve] her release. And I hope that Evan is released from detention and back with his family soon.”
Their detention is part of a growing and worrying global trend of governments criminalizing journalists, especially those whose critical reporting calls authorities to account.
From the persecution of José Rubén Zamora, the jailed president of shuttered Guatemalan newspaper, elPeriódico, to the police raid on the Marion County Record, a small-town Kansas newspaper, to the arrests of nearly 20 journalists amid the Israel-Gaza war, authorities often seek to silence journalists by placing them behind bars.
Yet CPJ seeks and demands their release.
Through advocacy at the highest levels, we call on governments to allow the press to bring us the news without reprisal—and we will do so until every journalist and media worker is free. So far this year, in fact, CPJ has documented the release of more than 150 journalists from behind bars.
If you haven’t made a gift already this year, or would like to increase your support, you can make a donation today. You can help us continue to hold power to account and see journalists free.
With gratitude,
John D. Weis
Director of Development and Outreach
Committee to Protect Journalists
