By NPF Board Member Nancy Youssef
This year marks the 30th anniversary of when the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed May 3 to be “World Press Freedom Day.” May 3, 2023, also is the fifth week my colleague, Evan Gershkovich, has been wrongfully detained by Russian authorities for doing the very job this day is intended to celebrate – journalism.
Evan and I are both Wall Street Journal colleagues who were part of the team covering the most important world news of our time – he from Russia and me from Washington. Beyond the obvious reasons Evan is at the forefront of my mind, I also feel such a connection to both his personal and professional story.
Even Gershkovich, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Evan is the son of Soviet Jewish immigrants, who was raised in a bicultural family. He traveled to Russia to give voice to his personal story through a freedom imbued in his family’s chosen country, the freedom of the press. He told stories from Russia with the kind of compassion and nuance that no one else could. Having also traveled to my immigrant family’s home country of Egypt to cover the major story of that time, Arab Spring, I can’t help but believe that he not only had a passion but a sense of duty to use his unique perch to inform American readers.
He did his job at one of the most dangerous times for journalists worldwide. As the news becomes more complex, so too are the challenges put in front of those charged with informing the public. According to Reporters Without Borders, 570 journalists and media workers currently are in prison, and at least seven have died this year doing their jobs. The number of journalists arrested has only climbed since 2020, and 2023 is expected to be the highest year yet. Evan is in the company of brave journalists worldwide, each equally committed to informing the world, even in the face of mounting threats.
Today, journalists and non-journalists alike are stopping to send a collective message to the world – the right to information, to witness and document history, is a universal human right. Disinformation and misinformation online and offline are among the cancers on that right, and the attack on journalism often is led by those also seeking to attack other fundamental democratic and human rights. Today, we aim to stand with Evan and all those imprisoned around the world and for those making the courageous step every day to pursue the truth. And we demand the release of journalists worldwide wrongfully detained because we understand that an assault on one is an attack on all of our right to know.
