Dissident Spotlight: Evan Gershkovich
Evan Gershkovich didn't ask to be a dissident writer, but his imprisonment showed why a press independent from a country's leaders is so important.

On August 1, Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich, was released from the Russian prison he’d been detained in for a year and a third. He was arrested on false espionage charges. After a sham trial, Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony.
Gershkovich had been a reporter at The Moscow Times, an independent newspaper that became an online-only paper in 2017 as Vladimir Putin escalated his attacks on journalists and dissidents.
Gershkovich reported on the Russian oligarchs and government corruption. It was a great opportunity for a young journalist. The Moscow Times would break stories about the Russian government that Western news organizations would report on, too. It’s unsurprising that Gershkovich joined the Wall Street Journal in 2022.
During his reporting in March 2023, Gershkovich was stopped by Russian police and accused of having classified information about the Russian state. It was a ridiculous charge. Gershkovich was just a reporter doing his job for a paper that was no longer based in Russia. It didn’t change his sentence.
Instead, his arrest galvanized The Wall Street Journal and many other media organizations to lobby for his release.
The Fight for a Free Press is Global
Gershkovich wrote for several newspapers, but The Moscow Times and Wall Street Journal are the most instructive. Here are two papers doing reporting independent from the government. Instead of getting their information from government officials, reporters check with documents and other sources to see whether reality matches what officials say publicly.
It’s easy to take a free press for granted in a country like the United States. But in Russia, Putin has imprisoned fellow billionaires for being too critical of him. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the 15th richest man in the world until Putin had him imprisoned for funding opposition parties. Journalists need their own powerful patrons to fight dictators.
Newspapers and human rights organizations globally lobbied leaders to secure Gershkovich’s return. In early 2024, News Corp Australia launched the Dear Evan campaign to support his release. A young woman from India who aspired to be a journalist wrote to the Wall Street Journal in support of Gershkovich. Global events from the U.K. to South Africa to New Zealand commemorated Gershkovich’s first year imprisoned.
This kept the story alive and resulted in the negotiations that finally released Gershkovich. As newspapers report on negotiations for one of the most complicated prisoner swaps successfully made, the most startling feature of the story is how ordinary Gershkovich’s heroism was.
Ordinary People Make Extraordinary Dissidents
The world came together behind one person who was doing a difficult job well. Gershkovich covered the country and region that his parents emigrated from. His stories included Russians who mourned Ukrainians killed by Russia’s invasion and the effects of Putin’s rhetoric. Gershkovich’s final story before his arrest was about Russia’s economy falling apart from the pressure caused by sanctions and the war Putin started.
Gershkovich handled his captivity with great fortitude. He not only corresponded through letters with his loved ones. He arranged flowers for the women in his life on International Women’s Day. Officials who saw Gershkovich consistently remarked on his good spirits throughout his imprisonment.
Gershkovich didn’t set out to start a revolution. He only uncovered information that ordinary Russians would have an interest in. By his arrest, he no longer lived in Russia full-time. He only visited a few weeks at a time for assignments.
His heroism lay in his defiance. Gershkovich’s resistance is a fight for the right to do the ordinary. The everyday luxuries many of us take for granted are being fought for across the globe. Gershkovich’s release is a victory in that endless war.