Finally Free & the Continued Fight

           Finally, after 16 months in Russian prison, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is back on US soil. With his release also comes the release of former Marine Paul Whelan who had been held since December of 2018. The release of these men, along with Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva comes after long negotiations and a swap of 2 dozen prisoners in exchange for the Russian release 60 prisoners from numerous countries. The WSJ for its part, has spent the 16 months since Gershkovich’s arrest investing time, money, editorials, and doing everything and anything in its power to help bring the journalist home. Ultimately this was a big win for press freedom, at a time when there are many losses in that arena.

           Gershkovich was recently sentenced by a Russian court to 16 years on charges of espionage, he had previously been listed as “wrongfully detained.” Kurmasheva, was arrested last October and recently was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison. She was initially charged for not “registering as a foreign agent” but in December was given the more serious charge of “spreading false information.” It is fairly well documented that regimes like Russia have a habit of arresting innocents and detaining them for prolonged periods of time in order to force a prisoner swap (and they don’t seem to care how long it takes which gives them the upper hand.) The more high-profile the detainee the better they can do in the exchange. WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested in 2022 when the Russian customs service found her carrying a vape pen and prescription hash oil (under 1 gram). The Russian authority leveraged Griner’s notoriety to make a deal in exchange for the release of the “Merchant of Death”, arms dealer Viktor Bout. It is unlikely Russia would have released Griner for someone less valuable, in fact Paul Whelan had already been detained in Russia at the time of Griner’s release for about 4 years and the US was unable to secure his return a part of the deal that freed Griner, all because the Russian government, and similar regimes are quick to offer trumped up charges that would otherwise be ignored in order to enter a chess game for exchanges. While the case against Griner was certainly trumped up and wrong, the “cases” that the regime is willing to make against journalists or leaders who vocally oppose them or offer reporting that is not in line with the Russian government are often worse.

           Not only does Russia prosecute individual journalists as leverage but they sometimes take aim at entire organizations. This can be incredibly dangerous especially if the organization is one that exists within Russia or once exsisted within Russia as an opposing voice to the government. This is currently in play as the Russian prosecutor general’s office has declared The Moscow Times as “undesirable.” The Moscow Times relocated to Amsterdam in 2022 due to Russia’s restrictive laws that were imposed on reporting about the war in Ukraine. One can safely assume that aside from the laws, it was probably unsafe for The Moscow Times to continue operating within the borders of Russia if it wanted to operate as an even moderately independent news source.

           Russia is not the only place that goes after free press of course, we know that in North Korea the "press" is entirely regime operated. China, has strict government controls on media, all newspapers and broadcasters being state-owned and all websites and social media companies are made to enforce censorship. In 2022, “China was the biggest global jailer of journalists…” Unfortunately, China’s global trade and okay-ish diplomatic relations with the US is the catalyst for the Wall Street Journal to have egg on their face. Despite their noble actions throughout the duration of the Evan Gershkovich affair, the WSJ has fired reporter Selina Cheng just after she was elected as the chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association. Cheng claims she was told that “…employees should not be seen as advocating for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong, given a potential conflict of interest.” I’d point out that operating as a reporter for the free press in a place like Hong Kong is in itself an act of advocating for press freedom, otherwise she could have chosen to work for a Chinese run news outlet, and if not advocating for press freedom in places where the press is not free….then where? At this point, there has been little blowback on her firing, and we really only have to go on her contention at this time since the journal has only said that it made “personnel changes.” It is likely this story will get lost (something that happens often to stories about HK) in the good news about Gershkovich. This is all the more reason for us to pay close attention, fight for press freedom, and the global welfare of news gatherers.

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