Table of Contents
- Why Are Journalists Being Targeted and Imprisoned at Record Rates Worldwide?
- Recommendation
- Take-Aways
- Summary
- Journalists around the world are being imprisoned and killed at an alarming rate.
- Russia targets journalists from Western countries that are sympathetic to Ukraine.
- Hundreds of journalists are imprisoned worldwide.
- About the Author
Why Are Journalists Being Targeted and Imprisoned at Record Rates Worldwide?
Explore the rising global threats to press freedom in The War Against the Press. From Russia’s crackdown on independent media to the record-breaking imprisonment of reporters worldwide, discover how organizations like the CPJ are fighting to protect the truth.
Concerned about the future of free speech? Read the full summary now to understand the global war on journalism and what can be done to protect those who risk everything for the truth.
Recommendation
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.
Take-Aways
- Journalists around the world are being imprisoned and killed at an alarming rate.
- Russia targets journalists from Western countries that are sympathetic to Ukraine.
- Hundreds of journalists are imprisoned worldwide.
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 journalists’ visas or press passes if it wanted them to leave the country. Gershkovich’s arrest came as a surprise. When Russia confined him in Moscow’s brutal Lefortovo Prison, it sent a clear signal to other journalists to be very careful.
Russia targets journalists from Western countries that are sympathetic to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has a long history of going after journalists who disagree with him. The deaths of Anatoly Levin-Utkin and Anna Politkovskaya offer prime examples. Since 1992, 82 Russian journalists have been killed.
Russia seems to maintain a hands-off stance toward journalists from countries that remain indifferent toward Ukraine, such as Belarus and China. But it has seriously cracked down on its domestic independent media since the invasion, all but stamping it out. Russia is even going after “nontraditional” journalists, such as bloggers. According to Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, Russia is also targeting poets and artists.
“Murders are the ultimate form of censorship.” (Gulnoza Said, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists)
Russian propaganda asserts that many Russians support the war in Ukraine. Further propaganda efforts cast doubt on the truth of any social media posts or news broadcasts. This is part of Russia’s effort to “sow doubt and suspicion” among its populace in hopes of convincing Russians that they are at war with an “Anglo-Saxon coalition” that includes the United States, Europe, and NATO. Russia also uses a state-run search engine, Yandex.ru, to control its people’s online access to news and information.
Hundreds of journalists are imprisoned worldwide.
As of this article’s publication, 363 journalists were known to be imprisoned around the world, the highest number on record. Countries that imprison journalists generally level “anti-state” charges, such as terrorism, against them. Belarus has jailed 26 journalists, one of the highest counts in the world. And in Turkey, journalist Hatice Duman began serving a life sentence in 2003. She continues to work from her jail cell.
The 67 journalists killed worldwide in 2022 marked a 50% increase from the previous year. Latin America, with a total of 30 murders, is the most dangerous region for journalists. Local governments targeted many of the murdered journalists, but criminals killed others.
“When US officials speak about defending press freedom and protecting journalists, officials in those countries listen. ”
When other nations detain American journalists, their employers in the media ask the US government to intervene and negotiate with foreign leaders for their release. The United States continues to have some sway with countries like Russia and often finds ways to work with them to free people such as Gershkovich, though the process is long.
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.