Join the Press Freedom Team on Tuesday, October 7 at 6 p.m. for an upcoming reception at the National Press Club!
National Press Club members and Press Freedom Center staff will be joined by Alsu Kurmasheva, who will discuss her work as a press freedom advocate, and provide updates on recent press freedom developments in Europe and Russia.
This reception is designed to bring the Club community together and celebrate the vital work of the Press Freedom Center. Don’t miss a chance to learn more about how the Press Freedom Center is advancing press freedom initiatives through personal engagement and meaningful intervention – and how Club members can support and amplify that work.
Book tickets HERE.
Alsu Kurmasheva is an award-winning journalist and editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), where she has reported extensively on cultural and human rights issues in Russia’s Volga-Ural region. She first joined RFE/RL in 1998 as a radio program moderator and has since built a career covering the experiences of ethnic minorities in Russia. Her reporting has also focused on gender issues, with in-depth investigations into domestic violence and women’s rights.
In October 2023, Kurmasheva was detained in Russia and charged with spreading “false” information about the Russian military, a charge linked to her alleged role in distributing a book featuring accounts from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine. Held for more than nine months, in July 2024, Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. In August 2024, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange that also saw the return of fellow American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Following her release from detention in Russia, Alsu Kurmasheva has emerged as a vocal advocate for press freedom, drawing on her own experience of imprisonment to highlight the risks journalists face in authoritarian regimes.
Last year, shortly after her release from Russian prison, Alsu was interviewed by the SPJ International Community along with Daniel Fenster, who was held by the Myanmar government in 2021. The two talked about how they dealt with their imprisonment for “doing journalism” and why so many authoritarian governments fear free and independent news reporting.