2023 Free Expression Awards

Representing all journalists who are jailed or unjustly held around the world Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice ventured to dangerous places – Russia and Syria – to report stories the world needed to hear. They are now among the more than 300 journalists who are imprisoned or unjustly held around the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was seized in March 2023 while on a reporting trip in Russia and arrested on charges of spying. The U.S. government and the Journal vehemently deny the accusations. Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison. Born to Russian parents who had fled persecution to the United States, Gershkovich leveraged his Russian language skills into an award-winning reporting career. He is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War.

In 2012, Tice was detained at a checkpoint near Damascus while reporting on the Syrian civil war. An award-winning freelance journalist and a veteran Captain in the United States Marine Corps, he was covering the story for The Washington Post, CBS and McClatchy. He was last seen in a video released five weeks after his kidnapping, surrounded by armed men. Tice is thought to be held captive in Syria. Efforts to win his release have failed so far.