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The state of press freedom: Russia sentences journalist to 6.5 years in prison

06:50

July 26, 2024

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar-Bashkir service, attends a court hearing in Kazan, Russia on May 31, 2024. A Russian court has convicted Kurmasheva of spreading false information about the Russian army and sentenced her to 6½ years in prison after a secret trial, court records and officials said Monday July 22, 2024. (AP)

On Friday, a Russian court sentenced a journalist with the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to six and a half years in prison. That was the same day the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial there.

And in Hong Kong, another Wall Street Journal reporter says she was fired after she ran for chair of a local group fighting for press freedom.

Here & Now's David Folkenflik speaks with Sewell Chan, incoming executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review.

This segment aired on July 26, 2024.

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