Wrongfully detained journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, now freed, attends NPC dinner to receive President's Award

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist who spent roughly 10 months wrongly incarcerated for her work, once spent a freezing morning in a primitive Russian prison discussing with her cellmate what it would feel like to freeze to death.

On Aug. 28, Kurmasheva, now free, accepted the President's Award during the 51st Annual National Press Club Journalism Awards dinner from Club President Emily Wilkins.

Kurmasheva, 47, was detained at an airport in Tartarstan in July 2023 as she tried to return to her home in Prague, Czech Republic, after visiting her elderly mother. She was sentenced to 6.5 years in a Russian penal colony on bogus charges of spreading false information about the Russian military. Kurmasheva was freed on Aug. 1, 2024, as part of a 26-person prisoner swap between Russia and Western nations.

Even though Kurmasheva, a Russian-American, held on to the fact she was wrongly detained and targeted for being an American journalist, she said the harsh conditions, humiliation, intimidation and fear of losing her sanity sometimes took over. But that day, when she discussed with her cellmate how it would feel to die of hypothermia, was different — she learned that the NPC was fighting for her release.

Kurmasheva, that day, closed her eyes and dreamed of being reunited with her journalism colleagues.

“We were smiling, we were hugging each other,” she said in her remarks to the dinner crowd, made up of other award winners and honorable mentions, as well as Club members, many of whom were judges for the various awards competitions recognized throughout the evening festivities. “Some of us were emotional, but most importantly, we were together. Even during these dark times, I never felt alone because I knew I'm part of a global community of journalists. I felt your support and it kept me going.”

Kurmasheva told The Wire at the dinner that the moral and psychological support she received from colleagues, their letters and notes, were incredibly valuable. She endorsed the Club's efforts to ensure all American journalists detained for their work receive the the “wrongfully detained" designation immediately after their incarceration.

Bill McCarren, Club Press Freedom team member and former Club executive director, said this would not only provide medical benefits to wrongfully detained journalists once they are freed, but it would allow U.S. ambassadors to visit the detainees and would put nations that take journalists as hostages on notice by the U.S.

McCarren said that though Kurmasheva was unfortunately given the “wrongfully detained” designation at the last minute, it allowed her and her family to receive medical and psychological support at U.S. facilities. If she had not received this designation, he said, Kurmasheva would have been flown home to Prague and left on her own to cope and see to her medical care.

McCarren also said that U.S. ambassadors may visit wrongfully detained Americans, a right guaranteed by the United Nations. As an ambassador cannot visit without the person having the designation, Kurmasheva never received a visit from a U.S. ambassador. McCarren said these visits are important for many reasons: morale, information gathering and making complaints about conditions, among others.

And, he said, being “wrongfully detained” moves a journalist's case to the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) within the State Department, a specialized team of about 40 people. He said cases without the designation generally stay in consular affairs, another State Department division with a higher caseload and slower moving bureaucracy.

Legislation to ensure that all wrongfully incarcerated Americans receive the “wrongfully detained” designation immediately after their detention, the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, was signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020. The act as written does not provide an automatic or presumptive wrongful detention designation for journalists — so the NPC is proposing the Levinson Act be amended to include this language.