Substack salutes Alsu Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovich, and courageous journalists

Fearless journalism has never been more important.

Pavel, Miriam, and Bibi Butorin, relatives of Alsu Kurmasheva, who was freed in the latest prisoner swap, embrace in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.

Recently, Substack hosted an event in Washington, D.C. to mark the one-year anniversary of

Tim Mak

’s The Counteroffensive, the first Substack dedicated to war correspondence in Kyiv. There, I was introduced to Pavel Butorin, a journalist whose wife, Alsu Kurmasheva, had been detained in Russia just as she was about to board a flight back to the U.S. Kurmasheva, a Russian-American editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, had been in a Russian prison for many months with no clear prospect of release. Butorin, who had been campaigning to raise attention for her plight, was stoic but also clearly concerned that he and their teenage daughters might not see her again. As a husband, father, and former journalist, I was intensely affected by meeting Butorin and imagining the distress he and his family were living with. 

Today, Kurmasheva was freed, along with the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich and 14 other people, including dissidents, as part of a prisoner swap between Russia, the U.S., and several other Western nations. This is not only an enormous relief, and a credit to the people and institutions involved, but also a victory for courageous journalism and the principles of those who seek to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. We at Substack stand in honor of Kurmasheva and Gershkovich, thank them for the work they do, and salute them, and their families, friends, and employers, for enduring such trying circumstances. 

Being a journalist, especially one who labors in hostile environments to bring important news to the world, is a high calling. People like Kurmasheva and Gershkovich don’t go into the work in search of riches or glory. They do it as a service, to bring essential stories to light and help humanity inch forward on a path to a more harmonious life, often putting their own lives at risk. They put journalism and truth above themselves. This much was evident in Gershkovich’s final formal note as he left prison in Russia: a request for an interview with Vladimir Putin.

At Substack, we remain committed to building a model and an ecosystem that can support this vital service, and we are grateful to outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Radio Free Europe, among many others, for their work and missions, and for supporting and uplifting courageous journalists like Kurmasheva and Gershkovich.