Nonprofit groups working collectively to call attention to the plight of journalists worldwide, including one who is serving a 25 year sentence for speaking out against russias invasion of ukraine. Someone who has suffered harassment and sham monitoring laundering Money Laundering accusations for her work. And austen, detained in syria since 2012, believed to be the longest held american journalist in history. The list of terrible situations, like these in our world right now, is long. We are joined by several individuals who know through personal and unfortunate circumstance and experience what is at stake for journalists worldwide. The world is closely watching the wrongful detention of journalist Evan Gershkovich and we are honored that his sister, danielle, is here with us at the post. It is essential that those who stand for freedom of the press stand with and for evan and not rest until he is home. Danielle will join my colleague onstage for an update on evans case. He was wrongly imprisoned in iran 10 years ago and is a powerful example of the risks that journalists face and his safe return is also a symbol of hope for all of us. We will be joined by my colleagues who will tell us about their work in covering the israelgaza war, the terrible risk to journalists in that conflict, and challenges to gaining access to cover the conflict. Finally, we will release the 2024 World Press Freedom index from Reporters Without Borders and talk to media and Free Press Advocacy Group leaders about the Global Landscape or press freedom and what is at stake as billions of voters across the globe head to the polls in many countries this year. Thank you again for joining us in your commitment to these issues. Jason and daniel will join us after this short video. Thank you so, so much. No journalists around the world are increasingly under siege in a variety of ways. That has now manifested itself once again very powerfully in evans detention and incarceration in moscow. Profoundly, unjustly, for doing his job. [applause] jason thank you for coming. I am an opinion writer at the Washington Post and want to welcome you to this important event. I am pleased to be joined by my friends, danielle gershkovich, whose brother evan has been held wrongfully in russia for over a year now. Danielle, thank you for being here to talk about evans case and your advocacy work to bring him home. Danielle thank you for having me. Jason 401 days is where we are in evans detention. He was arrested in a city and a court in moscow rejected an appeal last week to release evan on bail, which means that he will be, in all likelihood, in jail until at least the end of june. I want you to start by telling us about evans current situation, what you know, and how he is doing. Danielle right now, we are at a critical moment with the extensions of his detention. Our family is continuing to put faith in President Bidens promise that he will get evan home. We are continuing to take it day by day for now. I think showing the recent photo from the courtroom, this is so incredible that this is evan and we are so proud of him. I cant believe he is holding up so well. He works so, so hard to be able to keep his spirits up. Jason i can tell you that when i see images like this or video from the courtroom on the one hand im horrified by what hes going through, because i can relate, but also i feel like i am looking back in time a little bit. The defiance and resilience is inspiring to me as someone who went through something similar a long time ago. I understand that the two of you communicate by letter. I know that you have to be careful about what you write. Maybe they dont get to him or get to you in their original form. What can you tell us about the communications you had almost directly with evan . Danielle that is how it feels. I get a letter from him at like christmas from him it is like Christmas Morning and i hear his voice in my head when im reading into feels like i get to chat with my brother. It is a lifeline to my parents and i, and all of his friends, and everyone who loves evan gets to write to him. It is our way of supporting him. Of course, there is a lot of sibling banter. We like to tease each other. So, he is telling me that he is enjoying spring. More light. Im happy to hear that. Jason talk about the process of sending a letter. Can you share a little bit about how it happens when you receive things, how you receive them . Danielle so, the letters have to be in russian, which has forced me to brush up on my russian. I was a little rusty. So, i take about a week to write him a nice, meaty letter, and there are nice people over there who will print it out and send it to him in prison and will take a photo of it and send it to us. Jason at the oneyear mark the wall street journal ran a frontpage, which is a jarring thing for anyone in the newspaper business to see. I think it was a very powerful and stunning reminder not only of what we are missing, but also the power of journalism. On that day, Washington Post colleagues here wrote a feature story about you to mark that oneyear anniversary of evans arrest. Talk a little bit about how this is affecting you personally and also your family. Evans community. The larger community. A lot of people dont understand the impact that Something Like this happens on a wide number of people and the ripple effects keep going. Danielle evan is just an amazing person and he has made friends all around the world. We have seen this community not only of his friends, journalists, politicians, everyone cares so deeply about this cause, and it has been heartwarming to see. We are incredibly grateful for wall street journal and that publications are continuing to keep the spotlight, and that it is not just my brother but connected to a deeper issue of press freedom worldwide. Jason also wrongful detentions, which is something that weve been talking a lot about. As a sidebar, i interviewed Brittney Griner a couple of days ago. This group of people is growing. It is not a family that you want to be part of. Once you are in it you are welcome. There is a real connection between all of us. The piece that the post did with you as the de facto face of evidence story, even though you consider yourself to be the more quiet one who is often in the background, i know from my own conversations with my big brother, who was thrust into this position as well, that it is not a title that anyone wants. It is not a position that anyone wants to be put in. Can you tell us a little bit about how you have managed this sort of thing . You and i have talked about it before. It isnt something that you ever imagined having to do. Not just for evan, but generally. What has that been like . Danielle it was so scary in the beginning. Im just a normal person. I never sought out a career that would put me in that kind of spotlight. Im shy. So, it was very intimidating. But anything for my brother. It made it easy in that i knew that i had to do it, and im just really grateful that i had so much help from so many people. I think that is what we keep repeating. It takes a village. I got advice from a lot of great people. I have done more public speaking than i have in my whole life. I am really grateful that i have so much support for that. Jason i have watched many of these cases unfold. I can say that you have become really the most effective and powerful advocate for a loved one who is being held on the others the world. Were you surprised a little bit about the power of your own voice . Danielle i guess i dont even think about that too much. Jason probably for the better. Danielle yeah, id rather not. Im just so glad that i can be an impact for evan and for everyone else who is wrongfully detained. Everyone should be able to go home to their families. I just want that so badly. Jason you were quoted in the piece that the postgrand saying that i am really here just remind people that the post ran saying, i really just here to remind people that evan is a human being. What is attempted in cases like this is to dehumanize someone. You look at images of your brother essentially in a cage, being photographed. Talk about what that means to you. What does reminding people of evan humanity mean . Danielle he is just an amazing person. Im so glad that the world gets to see that. First and foremost, to me, he is my brother. He is the person who has supported me, rooted always for me, someone that i miss so dearly. Also, he is an amazing friend. He is so caring and so loyal. People from all around the world keep telling us, i am his best friend. I am his best friend. He is that kind of person. He brings people together. That is the most important thing to me. That people know that he is not just a journalist. He is also an incredible guy. Jason and a very good cook. Danielle yes. He and my dad do cook offs. He cut his teeth at mom and i sit back and do the dishes afterwards. He is an amazing soccer player, an arsenal fan. He will talk to you about literally anything. We didnt always ci to eye in our childhood. I was always a weirdo. Now he will talk to me about anything. Jason i heard there were some movies that you wont see when he comes home . Danielle i saw dune. He gave me the green light. He loved her the first one and i was waiting to see the second one. He said, no, it is ok. You can go see it. Jason i hope that you can rewatch it very soon. I was truly moved and astounded by the community that i fell into when i was released from detention in iran. We are a small number of people, relatively speaking, who have paid such a steep price for doing for making journalism. What has it been like for you and your parents to establish relationships with other families who have gone through something similar . Danielle every case is different, but it is like an odd family. Like you said. To everyone who has been through this experience, like you have, and is continuing to do this work, this activism, it means the world to support families like mine. And for everyone who is continuing to go through it, it is just such unusual, strange circumstances. We are therefore each other as much as we can be. Jason i reached out to your mom through mutual relations. It is a Small Community. Very soon after evan was taken and we kept up a text message friendship and i get to see her every once in a while. Your family, obviously, would never have hoped for this but they are incredible, you are incredible, advocates. I want to say that you handle it incredibly gracefully from my point of view. This past week President Biden talked about evan and included calls for his release in his speech at the white house correspondents dinner. Former President Donald Trump told the wall street journal that your brother should be released, calling your brother a very brave man. What is the message that you most hope to convey about the price of press freedom . Danielle we are so grateful that our country understands, this is a bipartisan issue, this is democracy, and it is also a matter of safety for american citizens. So, it grateful continues to be bipartisan. No one should have to pay that price for journalism. We just want evan home as soon as we can. Jason i got to see you and your folks at the correspondents dinner. Kind of a strange environment to be with people who are struggling through one of these ordeals. The year that i was in prison my brother came as a guest. The following year, he and his wife and my wife and i all attended, and it was a nice way to bookend a really horrible experience. I hope that we can all go to that next year. If you want to. Im not sure you will want to. But it was pretty spectacular for me to be able to spend some time with you guys there. You know, i am humbled to know that my own release in some way has become a symbol of hope for other people in this community. What do you think evans homecoming is going to look like and feel like . What do you want it to be like . Danielle we discussed in letters that we want to take a Family Vacation together to get away from everything and spend time together. Just im sure that you can imagine how much we miss each other. We fully trust evan that he knows what is best for him. He is a really smart, hardworking, talented person, and i think that he might still want to be part of the Journalism Community someday. Jason i certainly hope that he wants to, but i could understand why he might not want to. All these years later, im glad that i chose to stay in it. I just want him to have the choice, right. There are a thousand other things that we could discuss, but i think that we will leave it there for now. I really appreciate you listening and sharing the moment with us. Thank you for being here this morning. [applause] on average, more than one journalist is killed every day during israels war on gaza. They took us in a couple of apcs, armored personnel carrier, devices. We didnt see a thing from the edge. All of a sudden we emerged and there we are at the hospital. Israeli special forces soldiers rush us up to the third and fourth floor. We have a look down at the hospital. What we saw at the hospital, i have been there many times in the past, not recently, but during my past time here, and it was gutted. It was gone. Hello, welcome back. I am the International Editor at the post. Since october 7 the attention of the world and Washington Post has been affixed on israelgaza war. The post has mobilized dozens of correspondents across the middle east and the world in d. C. And egypt and lebanon and london and seoul. We have assembled a large number of correspondents and photographers and researchers. We havent been for the most part in gaza, in the heart of the story, where access has been extremely limited to talk more about that challenge of breaking in, bill booth, is among those who made were the focus of their reporting. It is great to see you both. You have spent your career reporting from gaza. At the moment you are no longer there. Can you briefly tell us where you were at the start of the war and why you and your family have decided to leave . Yeah. October 7, the attacks started in the morning and i was asleep at the time. It was 6 30, around 7 00. There was we didnt realize what was happening because what happened never happened before. My two boys were to go to school. I started making phone calls and the online messages, whats up, whats going on . It took us a little time to realize that there is an attack by hamas in israeli communities nearby. That was a very shocking moment for me and for the majority of people in gaza, including my family. I realized, i wouldnt say immediately, but later in the day, that this is something different. Gaza experienced different wars, but this is different. Even the first afternoon when the israeli strike started, there was a building right behind our building. So, i started to think that this isnt a joke. This isnt a small war. This isnt going to end soon. From the first day i started to discuss with my wife and with colleagues, should we move . I got to this place many times even the short time that i stayed in gaza. Not short, but in comparison with the people still there. I left gaza october 3. I left my house and two days later to a local hostile, and i didnt sleep. At 2 00 a. M. We were ordered to evacuate and we went to the hospital nearby, shifa. My wife, two boys, and i stayed in the hospital until the morning and then we moved to the house until we were asked to evacuate gaza city to the south. We decided from that time to leave, because for many reasons. For our safety, for my family, for my two boys and wife. It is important to be and we even stayed in the south in an unfurnished apartment. It was very hard. Communications and blackouts happened many times while i was there. Even my work wasnt easy when i was in gaza. The movement inside of that territory was really difficult and hard. I feel i was lucky to be able to leave. Douglas im going to ask you another question, but while we talk we are going to show some images taken by our colleague, a photographer who was taking photos on behalf of the post from october 7 until he too left in february. For much of that time he was the only post journalist inside of gaza alongside photographers from other News Agencies on the front lines. This gives you a sense of what gaza looks like today. Hazem, you have now had to cover the war from outside in. Now from cairo where you and your family are now. How are you able to do your job to learn what is happening on the ground in real time . Hazem i have to say that its not easy. Its not easy to be away from gaza. The fieldwork is the best for everything, but as i know gaza i was born there and i lived there most of my time i covered different wars. I have relatives as well. I have friends. I know gaza geographically, politically, socially. I worked there, apart from being in gaza myself, every day in the morning. I am chatting on the phone or a different means to people there. Mainly to check on my relatives still in gaza. Some of them already left, but some others i talked with friends and colleagues on the ground. I checked the news aroundtheclock. Technology now is really good. It helps. There are a lot of channels on telegram, whatsapp and other platforms that keep the news on. Of course, im wellconnected to the sources in different areas, mainly in gaza and nearby. That is the main thing to keep an eye. Geographically, i would understand what is happening here and there. When i talk to the people i would understand what does that mean and how hard is that so that i can understand the thing there. Douglas i will turn out to bill , who is based in london but is a former Jerusalem Bureau chief who covered the last major war in gaza in 2014. Access to gaza has always been highly controlled by israel. In the last conflict you were able to spend multiple weeks on the ground, even while fighting raged. What is different this time . Bill in 2014, a couple of days before the 50day war began, i ran across the border with a free pass from the israelis to go into gaza. I had been multiple times. We could get into the enclave. Peter from the guardian, we cross in, and we could immediately begin to work. We quickly worked with them and we got into the car and we could drive and go anywhere. We had Free Movement in 2014. 2014 wasnt the same war as this one is. They began with more strategic strikes. They hit where they aimed, the israelis, and then it became more of a ground war, much more use of tanks and artillery. But we could go wherever we wanted to. It wasnt crazy, it wasnt dangerous, and we were pretty methodical but there were no real guardrails on the situation. At the same time in 2014, i slept every night at the hotel on the beach and had breakfast and dinner. Hazem went home to his family. It wasnt safe but it was doable. This war, the 2024 war, we are not in gaza. I think that the world is missing not necessarily my coverage, but hazem baloushas coverage which would be very valuable. But we are not. We have to cover it long distance. Douglas bill was recently allowed four hours in gaza on a trip with the Israeli Military to view the ruins of what was once the countrys largest hospital, out shiva largest hospital, alshifa. While we talk i will show photographs from another photographer who joined you on that trip. You wrote that it was like looking at this war through a pinhole. Can you talk more about what you saw and what you learned and didnt learn . William yes. I had the illusion that i might see things driving into gaza. We got in our armored personnel carriers, we drove in on these dirt roads that the idf has made , but i had the impression that i might be able to see things through the cameras. The cameras were turned off. The two apcs that i was in. I thought that i would have a little bit of a problem because i didnt want that i was seeing anything that the palestinian reporters havent seen already and have shown us photographs and reported on. I thought, maybe i will do a narrative. But i didnt see a single palestinian, i didnt see any. Then we pop out of the apc and we are surrounded by israeli navy seals. They say, hurry up, hurry up. There are snipers in the area. There are still people around who are hostiles. You could hear weapon fire around us. We go up to the third and fourth floor where the navy seals are camped, the israeli navy seals. They show us the view with hazem in 2014. Since then i have been to alshifa many times. It is the biggest hospital in gaza and a central place. The hospital is completely destroyed. It wasnt leveled to the ground, but it was an unusable destroyed hospital. The odd thing was not the odd thing, but the value of being a reporter getting to go somewhere is that the idf tried to explain that they could have leveled the whole thing, but they only hit certain areas because they were meeting so much resistance. They were essentially almost proud of this fact. But the hospital was destroyed. If you didnt go you couldnt see, you wouldnt have been able to get the sense of what happened there. So, that was the story of that four hours. Douglas as bill mentioned the fact that access has been so limited on the ground has meant that the world has relied on a small number of extremely brave palestinian journalists, including hazem and others who have been left behind. Many have been killed, the number altogether in the war is 97 journalists, the vast majority of them on the ground in gaza. Bill, what do you worry most is being lost in terms of the worlds understanding of whats happening in gaza . William you know, i think that our palestinian colleagues have been doing a great, tremendous, difficult job. Right . For us at the Washington Post and others, the old expression in foreign journalism is that you have to go to see. You have to get there to see whats going on. Telling the stories of war are telling the stories of people who are displaced, who are killed, who are combatants, who are innocents, or who are on the other side. If you dont have that, what militaries around the world will give you our numbers and tallies and tactics. Numbers and tallies and tactics are not what war is. War is extremely violent. This latest gaza war is extremely violent. The civilian costs are high. The israelis have also paid a high price with the hamas attack on october 7. But if you arent there you cant pass those stories along to readers. Then the readers can make up their own mind what you think, but youve got to go in and look at it. You have to take pictures, videos, photographs, and interview people. If you dont do that, then the public outside has a limited view. Douglas hazem, as a journalist who worked in gaza for many years, you had already experienced some severe restrictions on your reporting. First from hamas and also from israel. How have your experiences impacted your view on the value of a free press . Hazem working in gaza wasnt easy. I have to say its not a free country. The press is not free. Local press and mostly affiliated. There is no industry in the press in the palestinian territories, not only in gaza. That limits the freedom of the press. Our work during the past was very hard. You had to deal with different parties. Mainly hamas, but others, of course. There were restrictions on many things that we had to fight on every single thing. Sometimes it is really hard. I dont want to praise myself or my colleagues, but being experienced and working with a professional outlet in a professional way, doing your job straightforward would limit restrictions. I got in an interrogation many times before. My view is the same. Free press is essential. We fight for it with everybody. Working in a place where it is not one player, there are many players, we have to be careful and cautious about so many things. About politics, ground, its not easy. During this war free press is very essential and its important to tell the story of the people on the ground, no doubt about that. I deeply believe that this is important. Even when i talk to colleagues, the truth, the truth, only the truth no matter what. Douglas we are about to run out of time so i will leave the last word with you. What do the people here need to know about the current war . William the current war is extremely violent. The israelis suffered a deep loss on october 7, but what is happening in gaza is a tremendous amount of violence. Gaza has been reduced to rubble and many sectors, the north especially. I think that our colleagues and friends and political people should push harder to let the press into gaza now. Six month ago would have been better, but these are our political decisions and partly our weapons and our efforts. I think that the u. S. And International Press need to be there on the ground. We are very responsible, we can take our own risks, we are good at this, and we should be allowed in to report the story. The israelis restricted the press more for this than they have. Douglas with that we are out of time. Bill, hazem, thank you for being here, for all of the work you are doing, and stay safe. [applause] douglas stay with us. My colleague jonathan will be out here next with our concluding panel. Please, dont go anywhere. Committed to the fundamental practice of accurate journalism where it might not otherwise be practiced these days. Does that put your people in particular risk . It does. Hello, welcome back. I am the associate editor at the Washington Post. Joining me is the ceo of the committee to protect journalists and the president and ceo of Radio Free Europe radio liberty, and the executive director for our sf usa rsf usa. Lets talk about the cb j tracki let meng talk about tracking journalists on the front line including names that you can see on screen behind us that are scrolling up. Who were these reporters and how are you investigating the circumstances surrounding their death the . We have documented 97 killings of journalists, 92 of them palestinian journalists. Almost all the journalists killed our gazan journalists working inside gaza. They include the likes of the one called press House Palestine which was a center for journalists to come and learn and train and get equipment, journalists working on radio and tv stations and also journalists and freelancers working for organizations like the Washington Post but the important thing as we heard in the previous session is since october 7th no International Journalists have been able to get into gaza except tightly controlled, we are entirely reliant on gazan journalists to bring up information about the war. 97 journalists have been killed since october 7th. How many were gazans . 92. 92. Steve. Bill told us about the difficulties theyve had gaining access specifically to cover the israel gaza war. You recently met with ukrainian president zelenskyy to discuss press access to the frontline of that war. The key take aways from that meeting that apply more broadly to press freedom elsewhere . Ukrainians are in a dangerous situation in these days if you want to cover ukraine there is frontline war reporting which is important, we have a team of journalists committed to covering but taking place on the front lines, but also theres a tremendous amount happening across ukraine these days and as ukraine pushes to be part of the eu, to be part of nato, fundamental principles of a free press are absolutely at play. A strong democracy exists only in places where free press is allowed to operate freely without harassment, without intimidation and theres a war going on in ukraine but these fundamental principles are absolutely essential. I promise i will bring you when in a moment but an audience question for jody from pat in pennsylvania who asks what actions could help to protect journalists in war zones . One of the things thats important to remember is journalists are civilians so they need to be protected as any civilian is during a war zone, they shouldnt be targeted. We believe certainly three and many more potentially journalists in this war have been targeted. Thats an important factor, making sure those journalists go in with the proper equipment and proper training so they can cover the war as safely as possible but that requires governments engage in the war to respect the rules of war. Host i see you nodding, you dont have to jump in. The protections for journalists take on a lot of different forms. Theres the physical protection, our journalists in many ways are the canaries in the call mine. Sting was in town this week so i can cite a police song. What i mean by that is every where we operate, increasingly our journalists have to be protected, the physical safety is absolutely what we push for, but in places all across the Coverage Area are things like accreditation that are no longer afforded to practicing journalists. That means they might be declared having broken laws, and that means they might have to leave the country or move on and so we need to protect their physical safety but we also need to protect them from harassment, we now have four journalists who are in prison, two in belarus, one in russia, one in russian controlled crimea. We have to protect them as well. Now it is your time. Your organization released 2024 press Freedom Index today. First question, what are the top three countries on the list . You put me on the spot. I always memorize the battlement. We will start their. There we go. Sorry. We get so focused on the negative. Im glad you started with the positive because we dont talk about it nearly as much. We were talking earlier, World Press Freedom day should be a celebration of the values of the free press. So often we talk about countries at the bottom, afghanistan, syria, but that belies the broader fact which is if you are the bottom of the index youre in a very dishonorable company. These are countries where the prepress fundamentally doesnt exist, journalists cannot be free to do their job safely or independently, not listed here but countries like north korea there is no free press, china is the worlds biggest jailer of journalists, there are more journalists in jail in china than any other country but if you look at the top of the list you see countries that have a legal infrastructure that guarantees freedom of the press. When there are instances where journalists come under attack in some way the court system is very adept at seeking justice. We also see governments that promote the free press by guaranteeing the independence of journalistic outlets, robust public funding available that guarantees the pluralism of voices in the media and the editorial independence of those outlets and joy from their government. The United States, what you just said right there is why the United States is not number one on the list in terms of public funding of media but the United States was in 45th place last year. It is now at 55th. Why did it fall so much. It was a little shocking at first and then i started digging into the data and it really made sense the more i read through our survey results and quantitative data we collect. We measure on 5 indicators, economic, political, security a legal and social, the indicator that took the biggest hit this year was the economic and i dont think thats a surprise to anyone given the Record Number of layoffs in the media in the past year and all the outlets that are closing, the death of local news all around the country. Every state in this countrys net negative on growth of news outlets which means closing more rapidly than they are opening all around the country. Thats a huge concern but we also took steps back on the political indicator and that is a reflection of what appears to be a growing willingness of political leaders in this country to vilify and assault the press. We see politicians calling for jailing of journalists, calls for the weaponization of the department of justice against critical Media Outlets and that impacts the social score, we know trust in media is at an alltime low and overall makes the profession much less safe for everybody. I jump off your last comment here and i want to preface this question by saying i do not mean this in a partisan manner but i have long wondered, the impact of an american president at attacking the free press, attacking journalism. The impact that has had on other World Leaders and their view of the role of the free press. Am i making too big a deal of it or is that fundamentally what has been happening . It has had a measurable impact. It creates an environment in which other political leaders feel that it is okay to go after the media, they use similar rhetoric, we set up with balls and are in brazil and a number of leaders who use similar rhetoric, enemies of the people. What that does is only create a tone at the top but filtered down where local politicians also feel that it is okay to verbally insult the media, denigrate the media and take action beyond the that, we saw near record jailing of journalist, people feel emboldened to take actions against journalists who are critical of them and to stifle the free press and it is not just happening in the authoritarian regimes we saw at the bottom of the list but the worrying thing is increasingly that playbook is being used in suppose a democracys, this week alone weve seen arrests of journalists here in the us for covering protests and that is a really worrying indicator of what we may see in the runup to this years election. Where we see it manifesting itself is take a look at the charges that have been leveled against people like evan from the wall street journal, hes charged with espionage. When you look at any other number of people who get hit with charges, inciting unrest, defining the military, these are politicized charges, in the political realm pushing journalists into the political realm where they dont operate. They are simply there to put a light on the truth. And so when journalists are described in this country as enemies of the people you start seeing that same rhetoric being repeated, and beyond rhetoric, in the form of charges and imprisonment and it just doesnt stop. It certainly doesnt help. It is so true, the rhetoric has a powerful effect. We also know dictators and authoritarians learn from one another. They borrow tactics. We see the same types of moves use against media and journalists being replicated all around the world, we know the china is trying to position itself as an exporter of its model of information control. A lot of the postsoviet states from the kremlins playbook when it comes to censoring media and finding ways to prop up legal charges against them. On the flipside we can document cases where positive changes in rhetoric improve the press corps index, brazil is a good example of that, change of president ial administrations, a person who regularly attacked and vilify the media to one who is more respectful of press freedom, encourages journalism and that is reflected in the data and the mood in the country. Before we move on more than half of the world will vote in elections this year making this a, quote, super election year. Is there a relationship between press freedom and elections . Absolutely. We rely on journalists to bring us all sorts of information that informs what we do, when we vote, even our ability to vote, knowing you are entitled to vote, that people are trying to take away your right to vote. Understanding what the candidates are saying, having journalists test their record, there was great traditional journalism that uncovered the criminality of George Santos and seen him ejected from congress. Absolute we theres a link and i want to echo really strongly steves point about canaries in the coal mine. This year is going to be really indicative not just of the future of the free press but of democracy because how we treat our media in the runup to these kinds of elections is a litmus test for how the other freedoms we enjoy are likely to be treated after words. Lets talk about one of your colleagues whose husband is on your staff, you see him and their daughters often. Tell us quickly about her story and give us the latest update on her case. You can see her photo here. Also has worked for Radio Free Europe for more than 25 years now. She is, i can describe are any number of ways, she is a colleague, but she is the wife of pablo the turn, the mom of two wonderful young women who have had to grow up awfully quickly over the last 6 months but she has been in prison, she is an american citizen, she went to russia where her mother lives, her mother was not doing well last year and also went back to take care of her. When she went to leave she was prevented from leaving, it was supposed to be a two week trip, that was the last summer. She was prevented from leaving and has been imprisoned more than six months and she is a proud and wonderful member of the prague community. She is one of four journalists who are imprisoned. We talk about numbers, the numbers of people held behind bars. Each and every one of these people are individuals. So they are held inside belarus, vlad, who is held in russian controlled crimea and in our thoughts every day. You mentioned two daughters. We have a video from bb who has a message of her own to share on this World Press Freedom day. Today is World Press Freedom they. My mom has been behind bars in russia for 6 months now because she is a journalist. My sister and i are so proud of her and miss her so so much. She needs to be freed immediately so she can come home to us. That the 15yearold. Shes 15 years old. She is a remarkable young woman. I will tell a story just briefly. A couple weeks ago. Powerful, bb, and miriam were here in town and jake tapper with cnn was good enough to host powerful and bb and at the end of the interview jake said why dont you take this opportunity to speak directly to vladimir putin. I think if any one of us were given that opportunity, the palms would start to sweat and youd be nervous and anxious, then cnn pointed her to a couple cameras and she just sat there with great poise and delivered an incredibly powerful, Pitch Perfect message directly to the russian leader calling for her moms release. They have had to grow up awfully quickly and powerful and evans family have become good friends through all this, something that should never have happened but there is a Small Community right now and we feel the support right from the beginning, we feel the support from see pj, from every one of these organizations including the Washington Post so thank you. We have 5 minutes left but one more question before i go to clayton. In 2012 when you were my boss, as president of nbc news, Richard Engel and his team were abducted in syria by armed militants. Did that experience prepare you for this . You realize how quickly moments can change and how you just kind of look into this void, and not have any idea whats going on. That incident with syria ended after a very short amount of time. It was an agonizing couple of days, people werent sleeping in things like that but we brought them home. This now, if you think what i heard his mom speak this morning, its been almost 12 years now for that family and the same thing with evans family, the time just starts accumulating and it is beyond time to bring them home. The president called for their immediate unconditional release. Clayton. Host you have been nodding and trying to double dutch your way into the conversation. I would love to get your thoughts on anything that might be on your mind but i have an audience question for you from adam in dc. He asks do you see a correlation between trust in media and press freedom . Absolutely. Trust in media is a symbiotic relationship. One of the ways we Measure Press Freedom is our social score which sort of measures the mood of the general public towards journalism. When you have this deterioration of trust in media, it enables political leaders to become ever more hostile because they dont feel they will suffer consequences publicly or politically. It degrades this condition for journalists in the field. We seen so many instances of journalists being harassed when covering protests. It lowers the bar for the leveler of anger and vitriol lodged at the media and makes it harder for them to do the job. I wanted to come back to one point i would be remiss if i didnt make, very powerful people in washington dc, also has yet to be detained that is an important step, its a signal from the state department that she is a hostage, she has been wrongfully arrested for being a journalist which is objectively true. That designation has been made for many other americans currently being wrongfully held all over the world. It has yet to be made for all to. Its a shame theyve not made that designation. In the couple minutes we have left, an oped in the New York Times you wrote without independent witnesses to war, atrocities can be and acted with impunity on all sides. What your message of warning to governments around the world who are not protecting the right of our free press . Of free press is fundamental to good government. It is fundamental to all of our freedoms and stability and security of our societies. If i may i want to grab 30 seconds to say one of the questions that came in about julian sanchez, it is a last ditch trial in the uk, they are doing fantastic work on this, an opportunity to drop charges against julian are signs. If hes brought here and convicted that will create a terrible precedent for press freedom everywhere. It is important the us uphold its commitment to press freedom and that includes dropping charges against julian assigned. Government have to realize press is not there to make life more difficult for government, its there so that we can make sure that we all have access to the information we need to live freely, safely, and it is essential that it is protected. Last words, steve. I will just say, just a little note about rfe rl, an independent, we receive our money from congress but this is an independent news organization. None of our people work for the government and we are fighting the good fight and we thank everybody for the support as we continue to go about this vital mission. Last word, clayton. There is no freedom without press freedom. Its the freedom in which all the others are based. With that, perfect time, jody ginsberg, steve, clayton, thank you for being here for this conversation today. [applause] you cant leave until i finish this last bit. Thanks to all of you here and online for being with us today. Our slogan democracy dies in darkness is a daily reminder to us all of the importance of a free press. To learn more about our upcoming programming and to take advantage of a free trial subscription of the Washington Post, please please go to washingtonpost. Com lives. Thank you very much for being here today. [applause] [inaudible conversations] today on cspan theouse returned at noon eastern for general speeches folwed by legislative business too. Members will consider the final version of a 5year faa reauthorization bill under suspsi of the rules, he mustast line is friday, the senate appved the bill by a vo of 88 to 4. It will require a 2 trds majori tpass in the house. At 9 am on cspan2