RTDNA Drafts Letter in Support of Evan Gershkovich's Release

April 3, 2023

Russian Federation

10-1000

Federal City

Moscow

In Captivity

Mr. Evan Gershkovich

Journalist, The Wall Street Journal

Dear Evan,

As diplomats at the highest levels of the United States government, your colleagues at The Wall Street Journal, and thousands of freedom-loving people across the globe work for your timely release from unjustified captivity in the Russian Federation, please know that the Radio Television Digital News Association joins your family, friends, colleagues and other champions in advocating for your immediate freedom and release from clearly fabricated espionage charges leveled by a totalitarian state for counterintuitive but obvious geopolitical reasons.

Please also know that journalists in the United States and around the globe, despite competitive pressures and other factors, are unified in their position that your arrest and persecution is unmerited, without legal foundation, and, frankly, is outrageous to the sensibilities of those who believe in, and practice, freedom of the press and the principles of factual reporting on issues of concern to the global public.

We have called on the Biden administration to seek your immediate release, and are gratified that the president has condemned your arrest, and that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has expressed concern about your situation to the highest levels of the government of the Russian Federation.  

We are sending all the thoughts of peace and comfort we can muster your way.