The War Against the Press
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The War Against the Press

A conversation with the Committee to Protect Journalists' Gulnoza Said on Russia's wrongful arrest of Evan Gershkovich and the alarming increase in the killing and jailing of journalists worldwide.

Michael Judge
The First Person with Michael Judge, 2023
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Russia’s arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in March 2023 put a spotlight on the fact that hundreds of journalists worldwide are being jailed, injured, or killed just for doing their jobs. Threats to journalists remain unabated even given the good news that Gershkovich was freed in a major seven-nation prisoner exchange on August 1, 2024. Today’s murder rate for journalists is the highest in recorded history, and they are also dying in active war zones. In this edition of The First Person with Michael Judge podcast, the host talks with the director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Gulnoza Said, about the danger journalists face and what can be done to help those in prison or in peril. 

Summary

Journalists around the world are being imprisoned and killed at an alarming rate.

On March 29, 2023, Russia arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and charged him with espionage. This was the first arrest of a mainstream American journalist on such charges since the end of the Cold War.

According to Gulnoza Said, Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), hundreds of journalists have escaped Russia. Still, the CPJ believes that the country is holding at least 19 foreign and domestic journalists in prison. Many news outlets have pulled their writers from Russia, but other journalists have chosen to remain. Today, something as simple as a post on Facebook or on the Telegram app can get a Russia-based journalist in serious trouble.

Experts initially believed that Russia would just revoke foreign...

About the Author

Former Wall Street Journal editor Michael Judge now produces and hosts the podcast The First Person with Michael Judge. Gulnoza Said, a former journalist, runs the Committee to Protect Journalists which documented 99 journalist killings in 2023.

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