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Russia’s Independent Journalism Will Survive in Exile, Gershkovich Says at Inaugural Derk Sauer Lecture
Evan Gershkovich said exiled Russian journalists are preserving the principles needed for a future independent press, despite the Kremlin’s dismantling of independent media inside Russia. Speaking at the first lecture honouring media entrepreneur Derk Sauer, he argued those principles could flourish again when circumstances allow.
The lecture in Amsterdam took place on what would have been Sauer’s 74th birthday. Gershkovich recounted his 16 months in Russian detention after his 2023 arrest on espionage charges, which he and others rejected as fabricated, and described how therapy and writing helped him cope after his release in a 2024 prisoner swap. Sauer founded The Moscow Times in 1992 and helped relocate it, TV Rain and Meduza to the Netherlands after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In short
- Gershkovich says exiled reporters are sustaining independent journalism.
- He spoke at a lecture honouring Derk Sauer in Amsterdam.
- Therapy and memoir writing helped him process his detention.