Good Journalism Punished: From Gershkovich to Abu Akleh
Just because it’s not in the mainstream doesn’t mean it’s over. In critique of journalists being persecuted for lawful reporting, particularly within war-torn times and genocides.
Journalism is not a crime and the more it is ignored, the longer it is perceived to be one. Evan Gershkovich is a journalist for The Wall Street Journal–and also the first American reporter detained by Russia under suspicions of espionage since the Cold War. Previous to his detainment by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the top KGB successor agency, Gershkovich was living in Russia reporting on people’s sentiment on Russia’s involvement within the Russo-Ukrainian War (Jabbari). In March 2023, he was detained, and as of July 19th 2024, he has been sentenced to 16 years in prison under vague charges of espionage.
A beloved reporter within one of the biggest news outlets, Gershkovich has seen an outpour of support. However, even with hashtags such as #IStandWithEvan, #FreeEvan, and colleagues shaving their head in support, following how Gershkovich was forced to shave his under orders from Russian authorities, attempts to free Gershkovich, even on bail of $614,000 have fallen flat (Rosenberg and Kim).
Gershkovich has the full backing of the WSJ, President Joe Biden, and seemingly America as a whole, but what about the numerous other journalists, similarly covering war-torn communities?
An innumerable amount of reporters covering the Palestinian genocide are overshadowed. Not only is their good journalism going unnoticed, unappreciated, but they are getting killed. Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was one of “at least 111 journalists and media workers…killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since [the Committee to Protect Journalists] began gathering data in 1992.” Much like Gershkovich, Abu Akleh was on assignment, covering Israeli army raids in the occupied West Bank. Abu Akleh was wearing a press vest and with other journalists when she was fatally shot in the head on May 11 2022 (Al Tahhan).
While shortly after Abu Akleh’s death there was support and increased condemnation of Israeli police forces, her experience, like many others, has been forgotten. Gershkovich has an entire page dedicated to him on the WSJ website and modes to express support for him and rage against Russia.
America claims to try and protect their journalists. Biden’s message in support of Gershkovich states that “journalism is not a crime” yet when a journalist who is an American citizen gets killed because of Israeli forces, there was not nearly the same amount of advocating for Abu Akleh. They would rather keep their allyship with Israel and perpetuate fear of Russia than actually speak out about the journalists they claim to care so much about.
Hey there! This article was later than I would have liked it to be, but lord was it incredibly difficult to write. Evan Gershkovich’s detainment and subsequent sentencing was hard enough, but upon looking more into Shireen Abu Akleh’s death my heart kept sinking further and further. This content is a little bit different than usual, but it’s for a topic very close to my heart.
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Lots of love,
Alaїa
(usual content out sometime this week)