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.

This month’s “10 Most Urgent” list from the One Free Press Coalition features journalists covering the war in Ukraine. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, millions of people are fleeing, hundreds are dying, and journalists are risking their lives to present the facts and the human toll of this incursion. Five journalists have been killed, while others have been attacked or have gone missing. The war has also devastated independent journalism in Russia. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that criminalizes factual news reporting. Hundreds of independent Russian journalists have fled—but there are no guarantees for safe refuge, and many lack visas and resources to continue reporting in exile.

1. Oleksandr Gunko (Ukraine)

On April 3, Russian soldiers in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka searched Oleksandr Gunko’s home, seized his phones and electronic devices, and took him to an undisclosed location. Gunko is a poet and the chief editor of the Nova Kakhovka City news website, which has covered rallies in the city against the Russian invasion.

2. Sota.Vision (Russia)

Journalists at Russian independent news outlet detained, arrested, fined and charged.

Since March 7, authorities have detained at least seven journalists with independent news website Sota.Vision, including two who were sentenced to multiple days in prison. Authorities also fined and harassed employees of the outlet and seized their technical equipment for coverage of rallies and anti-war protests.

3. Iryna Dubchenko (Ukraine)

Journalist abducted at her home and held in custody of Russian forces.

On March 26, Russian forces detained Iryna Dubchenko and searched her home saying they knew about her “journalistic activities.” They accused her of hiding a wounded Ukrainian soldier and took her to Donetsk for “investigative action,” according to Dubchenko’s sister and 1+1 correspondent Yakiv Noskov. On March 29, the Zaporizhzhia region of the Ukrainian military administration confirmed the journalist’s abduction and said that “response measures are being taken.”

4. Ivan Safronov (Russia)

Trial scheduled for Russian journalist accused of high treason.

Trial is set to begin in early April for Ivan Safronov, a former reporter for the Russian dailies Kommersant and Vedomosti, who was detained in July 2020 by Russian Federal Security Service officers in connection with his reporting. He was charged with high treason for allegedly spying for a foreign country. His attorney told CPJ that agents interrogated Safronov about his March 2019 report on Russia’s alleged sale of jet fighters to Egypt. Safronov has denied the allegations of high treason, according to the attorney. If convicted, Safronov could face up to 20 years in prison, according to the Russian penal code. In July 2020, at least 18 journalists demonstrating support of Safronov were detained.

5. Remzi Bekirov (Crimea, Ukraine)

Crimean Tatar correspondent sentenced to 19 years in prison.

On March 10, a Russian court sentenced Remzi Bekirov, a correspondent for the independent news website Grani, to 19 years in prison for allegedly organizing the activities of a terrorist organization, a charge Bekirov denied. Bekirov, who is an ethnic Crimean Tatar, live-streamed from Russian authorities’ raids and trials of Crimean Tatars and also interviewed activists with the human rights group Crimean Solidarity. Russia has enforced its laws in Crimea since it annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, including imposing substantial restrictions on media freedom.

6. Viktoria Roshchina (Ukraine)

Reporter held hostage for ten days by Russian forces.

Viktoria Roschina, a reporter with the independent Ukrainian television station Hromadske, was first reported missing on March 11 while on her way to the southeastern city of Mariupol. Her employer reported that Russian forces took her hostage. Roshchina was released ten days later. According to Hromadske, Russian “occupiers” forced her to record a video later posted on pro-Russian media and social media outlets in which she was forced to deny being held by Russian forces. Roshchina covered the Russian invasion in eastern and southern Ukraine. She is now in the territory controlled by Ukrainian forces.

7. Taisia Bekbulatova (Russia)

Independent news editor has worked to evacuate her Russia-based staff.

Once Russia passed legislation threatening up to 15 years in prison for the publication of “fake” information about the invasion of Ukraine, Taisia Bekbulatova, the chief editor of Russian independent news site Holod, began frantically looking for ways to evacuate her Russia-based staff. Bekbulatova had relocated to Tbilisi, Georgia, at the end of last year after she was declared a “foreign agent” by Russia’s justice ministry. Bekbulatova considers Georgia only a stopover and notes it’s “not the safest country for independent journalists because the current government is trying to avoid unnecessary conflict with Putin.”

8. Dmitry Muratov (Russia)

Nobel Prize-winning editor has suspended independent newspaper.

Dmitry Muratov, founder and editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta newspaper, is a 2007 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award and received a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his work. In March, Novaya Gazeta covered an interview that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave to a group of independent Russian journalists. Russia’s state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, warned that media outlets were barred from publishing that interview. Consequently, Novaya Gazeta has suspended publication in print and online until the end of Russia’s so-called “special operation” in Ukraine.

9. Vladislav Yesypenko (Crimea, Ukraine)

Crimean journalist sentenced to six-year prison term.

In February, a court in Russian-occupied Crimea convicted Vladislav Yesypenko, a correspondent with the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, on charges of possessing and transporting explosives, and sentenced him to six years in prison. Yesypenko maintained his innocence throughout the closed-door trial and testified that authorities “want to discredit the work of freelance journalists who really want to show the things that really happen in Crimea,” according to news reports.

10. Rodion Severyanov (Russia)

Russian war correspondent shot and wounded in Ukraine.

On March 29, war correspondent for the Russian pro-government broadcaster Izvestiya TV, Rodion Severyanov, who was embedded with the Russian forces, was wounded in the leg in the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol. He said he was shot while trying to help a wounded Russian soldier. In an interview, Severyanov said a Ukrainian sniper had shot him; however, CPJ was unable to independently verify the source of fire.

Ahead of International Women’s Day observed on March 8, the One Free Press Coalition in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) are highlighting 10 cases of women journalists who have faced retaliation or threats because of their reporting. 

While some of the threats faced by these journalists are widespread press freedom issues, women journalists face unique challenges. In particular, women  journalists face a greater amount of harassment online, as well as workplace harassment, with IWMF estimating that a third of female journalists have considered changing jobs because of threats. A 2020 UNESCO report found that globally 73% of women journalists had faced online harassment, which in some cases turned into physical threats and had serious impacts on mental health.

Journalists seeking guidance on digital and psychosocial safety can find them here, including tools for handling online harassment.

1. Sedef Kabas (Turkey)

Authorities detained Kabaş, a freelance journalist and former television anchor, on January 22 for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during an appearance on a political debate show, in addition to a charge for “insult of a public official.” Prosecutors asked to jail Kabas to 11 years and 8 months on both charges. This past February, while Kabaş was in detention awaiting trial on that criminal insult charge, President Erdoğan separately filed a civil suit seeking $18,405 in damages.

2. Hala Fuad Badhawi (Yemen)

In December 2021, military intelligence forces in Hadramout province detained Badhawi, and she is currently held in the central province prison. Colleagues believe Badhawi was detained because of her writing on corruption in the province. CPJ was told she will likely be referred to prosecutors on charges of membership in a terrorist cell, incitement to destabilize local security, and smuggling improvised explosive devices.   

3. Elena Milashina (Russia)

An investigative reporter at Novaya Gazeta, Milashina has been forced to flee her home after threats from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. At least five journalists at the outlet have been killed since CPJ first started collecting data in 1992. Milashina is seriously concerned for her safety, and this is not the first time she has faced threats, as she and human rights lawyer Marina Dubrovina were beaten in the Chechen capital last March.

4. Nomthandazo Maseko (Eswatini)

Maseko, a reporter for the privately owned news website Swati Newsweek, was assaulted by correctional services staff after livestreaming a protest by members of the Swaziland Liberation Movement (Swalimo) activist group outside a local prison. When officers spotted her in her car, they hauled her out, slapped, kicked, beat her with sticks, and an unidentified officer pointed a gun at her and threatened to shoot.

5. Rana Ayyub (India)

Washington Post columnist and freelance journalist Ayyub has long been a victim of online trolling and retaliatory legal threats, but began receiving a renewed onslaught of threats on Twitter after she tweeted her criticism of Saudi Arabia’s government role in the ongoing Yemen war, receiving over 26,000 tweets in response, including rape and death threats.

6. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)

In December, Vietnamese authorities sentenced journalist Trang to nine years in prison. Trang covers human rights topics, including police abuses and environmental issues. Trang has faced harassment in the past for her reporting. Days before her arrest in October 2020, Trang released a letter titled, “Just in case I am imprisoned.”

7. Julia Gavarrete (El Salvador)

El Faro reporter Gavarrete is one of more than 30 journalists in El Salvador who discovered recently that they were a target of Pegasus spyware surveillance. Gavarrete covers politics, health, environment and gender for El Faro, and the outlet has been singled out alongside other independent outlets by President Nayib Bukele and other Salvadoran officials.

8. Kalúa Salazar (Nicaragua)

Salazar, editor-in-chief of radio and television outlet La Costeñísima, has faced ongoing legal battles, harassment and surveillance from authorities, including physical attacks and preventing her from leaving her home. Salazar told CPJ that she believes the harassment is tied to the outlet’s coverage and a desire to silence the work of La Costeñisima, one of the few independent media outlets in Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast.

9. Lourdes Maldonado (Mexico)

Maldonado, a veteran broadcast journalist, was shot dead in Tijuana this January. Maldonado had previously been attacked because of her work and was registered in the Mexican government’s program to protect journalists. She is one of five journalists killed in Mexico since the start of 2022.

10. Maria Ressa (Philippines)

Journalist Maria Ressa, a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize awardee, faces extreme threats in the Philippines, including state-orchestrated attacks against her and Rappler, the news organization that she founded. This follows her conviction on a criminal cyber libel charge, part of ongoing efforts from authorities in the Philippines to silence any critical reporting.