Coinciding with World Press Freedom Day (May 3rd), global media outlets unite as One Free Press Coalition to publish this annual “10 Most Urgent” list, bringing attention to fellow journalists who are being threatened for seeking to tell the truth. These ten cases focus on journalists who are targeted for “terrorism” or “anti-state” charges.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the majority of journalists imprisoned as of December 1, 2025—61% of those jailed worldwide—were held on “anti-state” charges, which include accusations of terrorism or accepting funds from a foreign government.

The list is compiled in collaboration with CPJ, International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). According to CPJ data, 330 journalists are currently behind bars worldwide in connection with their work.

Reza Valizadeh (Courtesy of Valizadeh Family)

The One Free Press Coalition crucially and emphatically unites our collective voices in support of the following individuals and their urgent cases of press persecution.

1. Reza Valizadeh (Iran)

After 16 years working as a journalist in the U.S., Iranian-American Reza Valizadeh returned to Iran in February 2024 to care for his aging parents. He claimed to have attempted to negotiate assurances from Iranian authorities for his safe return, but was repeatedly summoned and interrogated for cooperating with exile-based Persian media. He was then arrested in September 2024 in Tehran and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “collaboration with the hostile government of the United States.” Valizadeh’s health has deteriorated in detention, especially worsening of his chronic asthma during a brief transfer from Evin Prison to “dangerously overcrowded” Fashafouyeh Prison (in the words of Valizadeh’s brother) after a deadly strike on Evin during Iran’s 12-day war with Israel in 2025. CPJ reached the U.S. State Department for comment in July 2025 and received word that the Trump administration called on Iran “to immediately release Mr. Valizadeh and all unjustly detained individuals in Iran.”

2. Jimmy Lai (Hong Kong)

In February, a Hong Kong court sentenced 78-year-old Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison—effectively a life sentence—following a December conviction on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material. The court also delivered sentences to six of Lai’s colleagues from Apple Daily, a pro-democracy outlet that ceased publication in 2021 after 26 years due to authorities freezing its assets and repeatedly raiding its offices. British citizen Lai has been in detention since 2020, having been arrested under a Beijing-imposed national security law that was used to quell protests and silence dissent. CPJ data finds China consistently ranks as the world’s worst jailer of journalists, currently holding at least 51 behind bars, including 8 in Hong Kong.

3. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)

Pham Doan Trang (Courtesy of Paul Mooney)

In 2021, Vietnamese author, journalist and activist Pham Doan Trang was sentenced to nine years in prison for crimes of “anti-state propaganda.” Her writing focuses on democracy, freedom of expression, human rights and police brutality for outlets such Luat Khoa legal magazine which she founded and independent English-language website The Vietnamese. A spokesperson has reported that Trang has faced deteriorating health conditions during detention—including sinusitis, arthritis, gynecological issues and longterm pain in her legs resulting from harassment by security officials in 2015. Trang has been denied outside medical treatment and has been transferred to a facility nearly 1,000 miles away from her family as an “extra form of punishment,” according to a report from The Vietnamese.

4. Zhang Zhan (China) 

Zhang Zhan is serving her second sentence in China as she has continued to be persecuted for her reporting. Her first arrest on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” came in May 2020 when she was reporting from Wuhan during the Covid-19 outbreak. She served four years behind bars and then was detained again on the same charges in 2024. A closed-door trial delivered her an additional four years in detention in Shanghai. RSF reports that Zhang has been denied the right to meet with lawyers and to be represented by a lawyer of her own choosing. Zhang, 42, has been hospitalized and force-fed during detention as she engages in severe hunger strikes in protest of mistreatment.

5. Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva (Tajikistan)

Amid mass protests in Tajikistan’s eastern Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region in 2022, authorities arrested veteran freelance journalist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva at her home, accusing her of organizing the unrest. She was convicted on multiple anti-state charges—including treason, terrorism, forming a criminal group, violent usurpation of state power, murder and attempted murder—and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Mamadshoeva, who is now 68 years old, covered cultural, social and geopolitical issues in the region for various publications; she also ran an independent news website and an NGO focused on women’s rights and other issues.

6. Tsi Conrad (Cameroon)

Filmmaker and photographer Tsi Conrad is one of three journalists jailed on anti-state charges relating to the Anglophone conflict in Cameroon. Conrad has been awaiting a court date since appealing his 15-year sentence in 2023 with the Supreme Court of Cameroon. He was arrested in 2016 while covering protests and has been behind bars since 2018 on charges including secession, hostility against the state, rebellion and spreading false news. A 2021 appeal resulted in partially overturning his original conviction. Conrad’s work included founding a news agency and film production company called Ruphina’s House and providing multimedia content for radio stations and separatist news website Bareta News based in the country’s northwest region where Conrad is from. 

7. Frenchie Mae Cumpio (Philippines) 

A Philippine court in February denied bail for 27-year-old journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who has been detained for more than six years. The Tacloban court ruled there was “no strong or compelling reason” to grant bail for Cumpio, who was convicted of financing terrorism and sentenced to 12-18 years in prison. Cumpio’s lawyers issued an appeal soon after the January decision. An outside investigation found that authorities planted weapons in Cumpio’s home before raiding the space in 2021 and incriminating the then-21-year-old whose reporting included local radio coverage of military and police abuse and independent media stories about marginalized people in the Philippines.

8. Sevinj Vagifgizi (Azerbaijan)

Sevinj Vagifgizi, chief editor of anti-corruption investigative outlet Abzas Media, is serving a nine-year prison sentence in Azerbaijan. She is one of 24 journalists currently detained amid the country’s crackdown on independent media since 2023. Vagifgizi was arrested in late 2023 along with two colleagues, when authorities searched the outlet’s offices in Baku and found more than $43,000. She received her sentence in mid-2025 on financial crime charges in relation to alleged receipt of Western donor funding and conspiring to bring a large sum of money into the country illegally. Vagifgizi, 36, and her colleagues denied the charges, instead claiming in a statement that the charges were retaliation for “a series of investigations into the corruption crimes committed by the president of the country and his appointed officials.”

9. Genet Asmamaw (Ethiopia)

Detained for the past three years, Genet Asmamaw is scheduled to present her defense in court in May 2026. She reported for the YouTube-based Medlot Media prior to officials violently arresting her in her home in Addis Ababa in 2023. The outlet covered conflict and political issues relating to the Amhara people and had attracted more than 100,000 subscribers. Courts have accused Asmamaw of inciting violence through social media and other platforms and mobilizing young people to overthrow the government. Asmamaw could face the death penalty, if convicted. Terrorism charges are the reason for detention in the case of all five journalists currently behind bars in Ethiopia, according to CPJ data.

10. Christophe Gleizes (Algeria)

RSF reporting calls Christophe Gleizes the only French journalist currently imprisoned anywhere in the world. The freelance sports reporter and contributor to the French magazines So Foot and Society was arrested in Algeria in May 2024 while covering the history of local football club Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie (JSK). Authorities convicted Gleizes that year of “glorifying terrorism” and “possessing publications for propaganda purposes harmful to national interests.” His seven-year prison sentence was upheld by an appeals court in 2025.

Coinciding with World Press Freedom Day (May 3rd), global media outlets unite as One Free Press Coalition to publish this annual “10 Most Urgent” list, bringing attention to fellow journalists who are being imprisoned for seeking to tell the truth. These ten cases illuminate governments’ efforts at criminalizing journalism, silencing the media, and withholding information from the public.

The list is compiled in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). According to CPJ data, 361 journalists were behind bars worldwide at the end of 2024 (up from 320 in 2023).

In August 2024, the One Free Press Coalition celebrated the release of two American journalists—Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva—from Russian detention after their cases topped the May 2024 list of “10 Most Urgent” press freedom cases. Kurmasheva prepared the following message in April 2025 ahead of World Press Freedom Day.

Given the increasing number of journalists detained for simply doing their jobs and seeking to tell the truth, and given the successful 2024 campaign to free Gershkovich and Kurmasheva, the One Free Press Coalition crucially and emphatically unites our collective voices in support of the following individuals and their urgent cases of press persecution.

1. Jimmy Lai (Hong Kong)

Since December 2020, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has been jailed in solitary confinement in a Hong Kong maximum-security prison. The 77-year-old media entrepreneur and British citizen founded the newspaper Apple Daily which has since been shuttered in China’s crackdown on pro-democracy advocacy and journalism. Lai’s son Sebastien told CPJ in late 2024, “For his dedication to freedom, they have taken his away. For his bravery in standing in defense of others, they have denied him human contact.” Beijing has repeatedly delayed Lai’s trial on charges of sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces, while Lai is currently serving a sentence of 5 years and 9 months. Lai denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty. His legal team told PBS in 2024 that Lai has been “prosecuted for being a journalist and for his writing, raising human rights concerns with international human rights organizations, and speaking to politicians internationally to raise concern about these issues.”

2. Shin Daewe (Myanmar)

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe was ordered a life sentence in 2024 (since reduced to 15 years) on charges of illegal possession of an unregistered drone, after being arrested and interrogated by police in 2023 when she was receiving the drone that she had ordered online. According to a VOA report, Daewe was denied legal representation and convicted of financing terrorist activities. Her husband noted that Daewe appeared to have been beaten during police interrogations, based on visible stitches on her head and welts on her arms. Daewe reported for local media group Democratic Voice of Burma and regularly freelanced for Radio Free Asia, contributing documentary coverage about environmental issues and the toll of armed conflict on the country’s civilians. CPJ reports Myanmar as the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists.

3. Frenchie Mae Cumpio (Philippines)

Tacloban-based journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, 26, has been held in pre-trial detention for five years. Authorities raided her home in February 2020 and arrested her—along with colleagues Marielle Domequil and Alexander Abinguna—on charges of illegal firearms possession and terrorism financing, which she denies. Cumpio testified to having been subjected to months of surveillance and harassment prior to the raid, and an outside investigation found that a firearm and grenade were planted by military members in her home to incriminate the then-21-year-old. Her reporting included local radio coverage of military and police abuse and independent media stories about marginalized people in the Philippines. If convicted, she faces up to 40 years in prison.

4. Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam)

Vietnamese author, journalist and activist Pham Doan Trang, 45, was arrested in 2020 and accused of “anti-state propaganda.” She was held incommunicado for more than one year before her one-day trial and conviction in 2021, sentencing her to nine years in prison. For years prior to her arrest, she endured threats, police brutality, self-imposed exile and interrogations over her writings about democracy, freedom of expression, human rights, environmental degradation and women’s empowerment. Her work had appeared in Luat Khoa legal magazine which she founded, independent English-language website The Vietnamese, state media, and exile-run blog Danlambao. Former PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in 2024, “She has sacrificed her health and freedom in the pursuit of justice.”

5. Ihar Losik (Belarus)

A freelance journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Belarus Service, Ihar Losik was detained in June 2020 in advance of Belarus’ rigged election in August. He was tried on charges including “organization of mass riots” and “incitement to hatred.” After a five-month closed-door trial in 2021 resulting in convictions for six journalists, Losik was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Reports suggest that Losik, 32, has endured hunger strikes, frequent cell transfers, denied mail privileges and self-inflicted injuries, and he is currently being held incommunicado. In 2025, RSF filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court on his behalf. President Alexander Lukashenko and his regime have cracked down on independent media, holding dozens of political prisoners, including having detained Losik’s wife Darya for more than a year after she gave an interview to Poland-based news outlet Belsat.

6. Sevinj Vagifgizi (Azerbaijan)

Since 2023, Azerbaijan has implemented a major crackdown on independent press, criminally charging at least 16 journalists including Sevinj Vagifgizi, the chief editor of anti-corruption investigative outlet Abzas Media. She and five colleagues have been arrested, and she continues to be detained in reportedly “horrific conditions” on multiple financial crime charges in relation to allegedly illegally receiving funding from Western donors. Police claimed to have found more than $43,000 during a search of the outlet’s offices. Vagifgizi and her colleagues deny the charges and claim they are retaliation for Abzas Media’s published investigative series into the wealth of public figures. “This case is not about smuggling, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, or document forgery,” Vagifgizi, 35, said during a March 2025 hearing. “It’s about intolerance for the truth.” The journalists could face up to 12 years in detention.

7. Vladyslav Yesypenko (Russia)

One of at least 18 Ukrainian journalists from Russian-occupied Crimea being held in Russia on politically motivated charges, Vladyslav Yesypenko has been in detention for more than four years. He is a 56-year-old Russian-Ukrainian dual citizen and a contributor to Crimea.Realities, a unit of Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty’s Ukrainian Service who had been covering social and environmental issues in Crimea, including ecological crises and the impact of Russia’s occupation on the region. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced in 2022 to six years in prison (later reduced to five years). Initially detained on suspicion of spying for the Ukrainian government, those charges were dropped and replaced eight days later with charges relating to possession and transport of explosives. He, his employer and human rights groups have denounced the charges as fabricated. According to RFE/RL, Yesypenko testified that he was tortured with electric shocks to force him into a false confession.

8. Li Yanhe (China)

China is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, holding at least 150 behind bars according to RSF and CPJ reporting in December 2024. Among them, Taiwan-based radio host and publisher Li Yanhe was arrested two years ago during a trip to Shanghai, held incommunicado, and sentenced in February 2025 to a $6,900 fine and three years in prison on charges of inciting separatism. A government spokesperson said that Li—who was born in China in 1971 and goes by the name Fu Cha—pleaded guilty and did not appeal the verdict. Li had immigrated to Taiwan in 2009, where he founded Gusa Press, which has published books critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. He also hosts a program on Radio Taiwan International about Chinese politics and current affairs. A statement from Gusa Press said, “We can’t see the indictment, don’t know what exactly Fu Cha was convicted for doing, don’t know the sentence, and are even more uncertain about whether he can return home after serving his sentence.”

9. Makhabat Tajibek kyzy, Azamat Ishenbekov, Aike Beishekeyeva (Kyrgyzstan)

In February, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court confirmed sentences against three journalists from YouTube-based anti-corruption investigative outlet Temirov Live on charges of calling for mass unrest. The three individuals are the outlet’s director Makhabat Tajibek kyzy (sentenced to six years), presenter Azamat Ishenbekov (five years), and reporter Aike Beishekeyeva (five years after a three-year probation period). Seven other colleagues had been arrested in January 2024 but were later acquitted into house arrest or released under travel bans. The decision also included sentencing for Aktilek Kaparov, a former reporter of Temirov Live which was founded by now exiled Bolot Temirov. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov dismissed the journalists as “not real” in September 2024 and claimed they were “spreading false information calling for riots,” according to Amnesty International.

10. Joakim Medin (Turkey)

Joakim Medin, a special correspondent for the Swedish newspaper ETC, has been held in a high-security prison in Silivri, Turkey since March 30. He was arrested three days earlier in Istanbul, while traveling to report on civil unrest in the city, and was accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and “belonging to an armed terrorist organization” because he was present as a reporter at an anti-Erdoğan rally organized by individuals tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Stockholm in 2023. Medin’s reporting specializes, among other topics and regions, in Kurdish issues. Through his lawyer, Medin sent the handwritten message from prison: “Journalism is not a crime in any country.” An RSF report with local partner Bianet published in August 2024 found that at least 77 journalists have been convicted of “insulting the president” during Erdoğan’s decade-long administration.

We are relaunching the One Free Press Coalition’s “10 Most Urgent” list as an annual publication set to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.

CPJ documented 320 journalists behind bars last year as of December 1, 2023, and this number was the second-highest recorded by CPJ since the census began in 1992 – a disturbing barometer of entrenched authoritarianism and the vitriol of governments determined to smother independent voices.

Given the state of press freedom, with our colleagues imprisoned and targeted for simply doing their jobs, this is a crucial time to use our collective voices to highlight the most urgent cases and shine a light on the threats to journalists around the world.

Evan Gershkovich

1. Evan Gershkovich, Europe & Central Asia (US/Russia, imprisoned in Russia)

Evan Gershkovich, a U.S citizen based in Moscow as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia since March 2023 on espionage charges that he, his newspaper, and the U.S. government all deny. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

On March 30, 2023, Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, announced it had detained Gershkovich on suspicion of spying for the United States. The FSB alleged Gershkovich was trying to obtain classified information related to “the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Gershkovich has lived in Moscow for six years, was accredited with the Russian Foreign Ministry, and was covering Russia as part of The Wall Street Journal’s Moscow bureau. He had reported extensively about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

2. Alsu Kurmasheva, Europe & Central Asia (US, imprisoned in Russia)

Alsu Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian dual citizen and an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of U.S. Congress-funded, editorially independent Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has been detained in Russia since October 18, 2023, on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. A new charge of spreading “fake” information about the Russian army was later brought against her. If convicted of both charges, Kurmasheva faces up to 15 years in prison in total.

Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague, traveled to Russia for a family emergency on May 20, 2023 and has been unable to leave the country since. She complained of harsh conditions behind bars, of health issues that recurred while in detention and of getting a “minimal” medical treatment.

On April 1, her detention was extended until June 5.

3. José Rubén Zamora, Americas (Guatemala)

José Rubén Zamora, president of the Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico, was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2023 on money laundering charges that were widely condemned as retaliation for his journalism.

An appeals court annulled his sentence in October 2023 and Zamora remains behind bars ahead of a retrial scheduled for 2024. He has been in detention since his arrest in July 2022.

Zamora, one of Guatemala’s most high-profile investigative journalists with a career spanning more than 30 years, has faced repeated threats and attacks for his decades of reporting on corruption and human rights violations.

4. Genet Asmamaw, Africa (Ethiopia)

Genet Asmamaw, a reporter with the YouTube-based Medlot Media, which is part of the Yegna Media group, and covers political issues related to the Amhara people, was arrested in April 2023 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. She was physically assaulted during the arrest.

She was charged with terrorism in June, alongside 50 co-defendants, three of whom were journalists. Genet, who could face the death penalty if convicted, joined a hunger strike in May to protest what detainees described as political persecution. As of late 2023, she was in prison awaiting trial.

5. Jimmy Lai, Asia (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, 76, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and a British citizen, has been detained since December 2020.

Lai is currently serving a prison sentence of five years and nine months on fraud charges related to a lease dispute and is on a separate trial under national security charges, which could see him jailed for life.

The charges of foreign collusion under the national security law – imposed by Beijing three years ago – has been used to stifle free speech and crush dissent in Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom in Asia.

6. Shireen Abu Akleh, MENA (West Bank)

Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American correspondent for Al-Jazeera Arabic, was fatally shot in the head on May 11, 2022, while covering an Israeli army operation in the West Bank town of Jenin, according to Al-Jazeera and other news reports.

A video of the aftermath of the shooting, posted on Twitter by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, shows Abu Akleh wearing a vest marked “Press.” Multiple investigations into her death concluded that the veteran reporter – a household name in the region – was shot by a member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

As of May 1, 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), preliminary investigations showed at least 97 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead since October 7, 2023; journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to deliver news during the ground conflict.

7. Viktoria Roshchina, Europe & Central Asia (Ukraine)

Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina was reportedly abducted by Russian forces in Ukraine in early August 2023 and has been held by Russia ever since.

Roshchina, who planned to travel on a reporting trip to the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine via Russia, left Ukraine for Poland on July 25, 2023, and was expected to reach the territories three days later. Her current location is unknown.

Roshchina is a freelance reporter who has been covering the war in Ukraine for several Ukrainian media outlets, including Kyiv-based independent news website Ukrainska Pravda, regional news website Novosti Donbassa, and privately-owned news website Censor.net.

8. Shin Daewe, Asia (Myanmar)

Award-winning Myanmar documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe is serving a life sentence on charges of illegal possession of an unregistered drone, a criminal offense under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law.

Daewe was arrested on October 15, 2023, while picking up a video drone she had ordered online to use for filming a documentary. Police interrogated the journalist for nearly two weeks before charging her and transferring her to Yangon’s Insein Prison where she was tried by a secret military tribunal and denied legal representation during the proceedings.

Shin Daewe, a former reporter with the local media group Democratic Voice of Burma and a regular freelance contributor to Radio Free Asia, is known for her documentary coverage of environmental issues and the toll that armed conflict has taken on the country’s civilians.

9. Dieudonné Niyonsenga, Africa (Rwanda)

Dieudonné Niyonsenga, who also goes by the name Cyuma Hassan, owned and reported for Ishema TV, a YouTube channel that covered local politics and human rights. He was initially arrested by Rwandan authorities in 2020 who accused him of breaching COVID-19 lockdown orders. He was later charged with impersonating a journalist and forging a press card.

Niyonsenga was acquitted in March 2021, but authorities appealed that ruling, and he was retried, convicted and jailed for seven years in November 2021. In January 2024, it was reported that Niyonsenga had been tortured in a Rwandan prison.

10. Gustavo Gorriti, Americas (Peru)

Gustavo Gorriti is Peru’s most prominent investigative reporter and the founder of IDL-Reporteros, the journalism arm of the Legal Defense Institute, an independent organization dedicated to fighting corruption and improving justice in Peru.

In April 2024, Peruvian authorities opened a preliminary investigation into Gorriti, which could force the journalist to reveal his sources.

Since 2015, IDL-Reporteros has published exposés about corruption within Peru’s judicial system.