He just wanted to tell the truth. He endured almost 500 days of detention in Russia. American journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained on 29 March 2023, in Yekaterinburg.

The Russian authorities arrested him on espionage allegations, which the US government vehemently denied. Gershkovich then spent 23 hours a day in a cell at the maximum-security Lefortovo prison in Moscow. He became a political pawn for Russian president Vladimir Putin amid worsening US-Russia relations.

At the time of his arrest, Gershkovich worked as a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), reporting on the impact on Russia of the war in Ukraine. Gershkovich was researching an article intended to examine Russian attitudes towards the Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation that initially played a prominent role in the invasion of Ukraine.

One of few Western journalists operating inside Russia, he was committed to helping the world understand the country, publishing stories that the Russian government did not want to be told.

“Arresting a foreign journalist on espionage charges is a serious escalation of Russia’s attacks on journalism,” said Scott Griffen, the International Press Institute’s deputy director. “It underscores the depth of Russia’s effort to silence coverage of Putin’s war on Ukraine.”

“Journalism is not a crime,” Gershkovich’s mother, Ella Milman, said in an episode of the WSJ’s podcast The Journal. It is worrying that she even had to point this out.

On 1 August of this year, Gershkovich was released in a prisoner exchange. He was one of 16 people held in Russian detention to be released in exchange for eight Russians.

Rather than evidence of respect for journalistic freedom, the prisoner exchange is illustrative of the escalating threats that journalists face today. It was undoubtedly a victory for Putin, who was able to secure the release of convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany. Deals such as this may embolden authoritarian leaders to arrest journalists to further their own ends.

Gershkovich was, unfortunately, one of hundreds of journalists who have been unlawfully detained around the world. His predicament was and continues to be not unique. Rather, it is reflective of a global environment – not solely in Russia – which has become increasingly hostile to journalists.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is an international NGO that advocates for universal access to “free and reliable information” and exposes abuses committed against journalists. Its 2024 World Press Freedom Index illustrates the dire state of press freedom globally. Just a quarter of the 180 ranked countries were found to have even satisfactory conditions for practising journalism.

2023 was the most dangerous year to be a reporter since 2015, with 99 reporters killed, 44% more than in 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Almost 400 reporters were imprisoned, as authoritarian regimes and governments tried to suppress dissent.

In September 2022, Iranian journalists Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi were arrested and sentenced to 12 and 13 years in prison, respectively. The women had just broken the story of Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody, reporting on Amini’s funeral and refuting the authorities’ claims that the 22-year-old had underlying health conditions that had contributed towards her death.

Their arrests were among many in Iran, a country where independent press outlets are in constant danger and the Islamic regime controls the majority of the media.

In June, pioneering feminist journalist Huang Xueqin was found guilty of subversion by a court in southern China. She was sentenced to five years in prison. Huang was at the forefront of China’s #MeToo movement, helping women report cases of sexual harassment. Her conviction indicates a harsh crackdown on China’s once-flourishing #MeToo movement, with little space for expressing views on social issues.

The reality is that, in most cases, nobody is held to account for the imprisonment and killing of journalists around the world.

But a free press is crucial.

Reliable, unbiased information is imperative in order to truly understand what is happening around the world. Without access to it, how can we understand and deconstruct what is happening in the world? How can we form opinions?

If people no longer trust mainstream media, then reporting which exposes abuses of power and corruption won’t have the impact it deserves, and a pivotal check on governmental power will be removed. That’s why authoritarian governments attack and threaten the independent press in their quest to consolidate power, as Putin has done in Russia by driving out Western journalists.

As reporting becomes too dangerous to undertake in certain parts of the world, important stories will be left unrecorded, and groups of people uninformed. This is dangerous, because it allows information to be distorted and presented in such a way that the reader is no longer being informed, but instead is being indoctrinated.

Independent reporting is about asking the hard questions. Probing deeper to find the truth. Holding those in power to account. It is fundamental to democracy, acting as a watchdog against an overmighty executive. At its best, it allows marginalised people to have a voice in society. It provides a forum for the discussion of ideas.

Ultimately, no journalist should be detained simply because they are reporting on the truth. The world needs its journalists.

“Without press freedom, we won’t have any freedom,” United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned on World Press Freedom Day in May.

Every journalist putting their life on the line to report from dangerous places is doing us a great service. But the truth is, they shouldn’t have to put their life in danger.

Evan Gershkovich, Elaheh Mohammadi, Niloufar Hamedi and Huang Zueqin are four journalists who have been unjustly imprisoned out of hundreds. We must not forget their stories.