Atlanta, Ga. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff released the following statement on the 100th day of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s wrongful detainment in Russia:
“Since his arrest by the Russian government on March 29, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been wrongfully detained — deprived of his liberty and taken from his family — for 100 days.
“Mr. Gershkovich’s wrongful detention is a cruel and unjust violation of human rights and an attack on press freedom.
“Mr. Gershkovich and all Americans wrongfully detained around the world are not and will not be forgotten as efforts to secure their release continue.”
Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Sen. Ossoff produced internationally broadcast investigations of war crimes, official corruption, and organized crime.
Earlier this year, Sen. Ossoff led a coalition of Senators urging specific funding for the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and USAID’s Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance accounts for journalist safety, including robust resources for direct emergency grants for reporters who find themselves at risk.
Last fall, Sen. Ossoff led a bipartisan group of Senators calling on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the United States’ UN Delegation to push for the creation a new Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Safety of Journalists.
He also led an effort with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) to demand accountability for the killing of an American Journalist in the West Bank and questioned Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearings to reiterate her commitments to freedoms of speech and of the press.
