VOC Calls for the Immediate Release of Journalist Evan Gershkovich

Any society that claims to be a democracy must uphold fundamental freedoms such as freedom of religion, thought, assembly, expression, an orderly and transparent legal process and, importantly, freedom of the press. This is certainly not the case of Russia in their sham imprisonment of Evan Gershkovich.

Although the facts of this case are well known, they bear repeating. First, Evan Gershkovich, an American citizen, was acting in his legal capacity as a Wall Street Journal reporter in Russia. He is a respected journalist from an internationally renowned media enterprise. Second, Gershkovich was detained and charged with espionage, but Moscow has failed to provide any semblance of proof. He was then held without due process for 15 months in the notorious Lefortovo prison, the former KGB headquarters. Last Friday, Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years behind bars in a maximum-security facility. This conviction by Russia’s kangaroo court is the first sentencing of an American journalist for espionage in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

We should not be surprised that a regime like Vladimir Putin’s, which routinely deploys propaganda and fake news, should crack down on a truth teller. Indeed, this is the playbook of communist and authoritarian regimes around the world. From Havana to Moscow, journalists have long been targeted because they expose lies and are champions of the average citizen.

Journalism is not a crime. But in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where freedom of the press and other basic rights have deteriorated beyond recognition, speaking the truth is now illegal. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation calls on the Russian government to end its persecution of journalists and immediately release Evan Gershkovich.