10 Most Urgent, May 2024

We are relaunching the One Free Press Coalition’s “10 Most Urgent” list as an annual publication set to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.

CPJ documented 320 journalists behind bars last year as of December 1, 2023, and this number was the second-highest recorded by CPJ since the census began in 1992 – a disturbing barometer of entrenched authoritarianism and the vitriol of governments determined to smother independent voices.

Given the state of press freedom, with our colleagues imprisoned and targeted for simply doing their jobs, this is a crucial time to use our collective voices to highlight the most urgent cases and shine a light on the threats to journalists around the world.

Evan Gershkovich

1. Evan Gershkovich, Europe & Central Asia (US/Russia, imprisoned in Russia)

Evan Gershkovich, a U.S citizen based in Moscow as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia since March 2023 on espionage charges that he, his newspaper, and the U.S. government all deny. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

On March 30, 2023, Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, announced it had detained Gershkovich on suspicion of spying for the United States. The FSB alleged Gershkovich was trying to obtain classified information related to “the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Gershkovich has lived in Moscow for six years, was accredited with the Russian Foreign Ministry, and was covering Russia as part of The Wall Street Journal’s Moscow bureau. He had reported extensively about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

2. Alsu Kurmasheva, Europe & Central Asia (US, imprisoned in Russia)

Alsu Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian dual citizen and an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of U.S. Congress-funded, editorially independent Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has been detained in Russia since October 18, 2023, on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. A new charge of spreading “fake” information about the Russian army was later brought against her. If convicted of both charges, Kurmasheva faces up to 15 years in prison in total.

Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague, traveled to Russia for a family emergency on May 20, 2023 and has been unable to leave the country since. She complained of harsh conditions behind bars, of health issues that recurred while in detention and of getting a “minimal” medical treatment.

On April 1, her detention was extended until June 5.

3. José Rubén Zamora, Americas (Guatemala)

José Rubén Zamora, president of the Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico, was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2023 on money laundering charges that were widely condemned as retaliation for his journalism.

An appeals court annulled his sentence in October 2023 and Zamora remains behind bars ahead of a retrial scheduled for 2024. He has been in detention since his arrest in July 2022.

Zamora, one of Guatemala’s most high-profile investigative journalists with a career spanning more than 30 years, has faced repeated threats and attacks for his decades of reporting on corruption and human rights violations.

4. Genet Asmamaw, Africa (Ethiopia)

Genet Asmamaw, a reporter with the YouTube-based Medlot Media, which is part of the Yegna Media group, and covers political issues related to the Amhara people, was arrested in April 2023 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. She was physically assaulted during the arrest.

She was charged with terrorism in June, alongside 50 co-defendants, three of whom were journalists. Genet, who could face the death penalty if convicted, joined a hunger strike in May to protest what detainees described as political persecution. As of late 2023, she was in prison awaiting trial.

5. Jimmy Lai, Asia (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, 76, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and a British citizen, has been detained since December 2020.

Lai is currently serving a prison sentence of five years and nine months on fraud charges related to a lease dispute and is on a separate trial under national security charges, which could see him jailed for life.

The charges of foreign collusion under the national security law – imposed by Beijing three years ago – has been used to stifle free speech and crush dissent in Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom in Asia.

6. Shireen Abu Akleh, MENA (West Bank)

Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American correspondent for Al-Jazeera Arabic, was fatally shot in the head on May 11, 2022, while covering an Israeli army operation in the West Bank town of Jenin, according to Al-Jazeera and other news reports.

A video of the aftermath of the shooting, posted on Twitter by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, shows Abu Akleh wearing a vest marked “Press.” Multiple investigations into her death concluded that the veteran reporter – a household name in the region – was shot by a member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

As of May 1, 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), preliminary investigations showed at least 97 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead since October 7, 2023; journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to deliver news during the ground conflict.

7. Viktoria Roshchina, Europe & Central Asia (Ukraine)

Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina was reportedly abducted by Russian forces in Ukraine in early August 2023 and has been held by Russia ever since.

Roshchina, who planned to travel on a reporting trip to the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine via Russia, left Ukraine for Poland on July 25, 2023, and was expected to reach the territories three days later. Her current location is unknown.

Roshchina is a freelance reporter who has been covering the war in Ukraine for several Ukrainian media outlets, including Kyiv-based independent news website Ukrainska Pravda, regional news website Novosti Donbassa, and privately-owned news website Censor.net.

8. Shin Daewe, Asia (Myanmar)

Award-winning Myanmar documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe is serving a life sentence on charges of illegal possession of an unregistered drone, a criminal offense under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law.

Daewe was arrested on October 15, 2023, while picking up a video drone she had ordered online to use for filming a documentary. Police interrogated the journalist for nearly two weeks before charging her and transferring her to Yangon’s Insein Prison where she was tried by a secret military tribunal and denied legal representation during the proceedings.

Shin Daewe, a former reporter with the local media group Democratic Voice of Burma and a regular freelance contributor to Radio Free Asia, is known for her documentary coverage of environmental issues and the toll that armed conflict has taken on the country’s civilians.

9. Dieudonné Niyonsenga, Africa (Rwanda)

Dieudonné Niyonsenga, who also goes by the name Cyuma Hassan, owned and reported for Ishema TV, a YouTube channel that covered local politics and human rights. He was initially arrested by Rwandan authorities in 2020 who accused him of breaching COVID-19 lockdown orders. He was later charged with impersonating a journalist and forging a press card.

Niyonsenga was acquitted in March 2021, but authorities appealed that ruling, and he was retried, convicted and jailed for seven years in November 2021. In January 2024, it was reported that Niyonsenga had been tortured in a Rwandan prison.

10. Gustavo Gorriti, Americas (Peru)

Gustavo Gorriti is Peru’s most prominent investigative reporter and the founder of IDL-Reporteros, the journalism arm of the Legal Defense Institute, an independent organization dedicated to fighting corruption and improving justice in Peru.

In April 2024, Peruvian authorities opened a preliminary investigation into Gorriti, which could force the journalist to reveal his sources.

Since 2015, IDL-Reporteros has published exposés about corruption within Peru’s judicial system.