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WASHINGTON —American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was in a Russian prison earlier this year when she learned from an interrogator that she had been recognized with an award from the National Press Club in Washington.
Kurmasheva found the situation ironic at the time, she told VOA this week. The interrogator said the award was evidence that she worked for a foreign government. For Kurmasheva, the award was a signal that people were fighting for her release.
"That's the moment when I realized that the free world was fighting for me," said Kurmasheva, who works at VOA's sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague.
After her release as part of a historic prisoner swap in August, Kurmasheva learned just how hard media associations had fought to secure her freedom. The National Press Club, she said, was "one of my strongest defenders."
Based in Washington as a professional organization for journalists, the club has long had a record of standing up for members of the media community under threat.
With risks for media rising globally, the club has formalized its work to create a Press Freedom Center, which will operate independently from the club, said the group's director Bill McCarren.
"How do we support those kinds of journalists, both from the standpoint of campaigning for them when they're under threat, and then helping them when they have arrived [to safety]?" McCarren said. Those two areas will be the center's goals, McCarren said.
The center is using the first-hand knowledge of journalists who have experienced imprisonment to help guide its work.
Kurmasheva will be among those serving on the advisory board of the new Press Freedom Center, and The Washington Post's Jason Rezaian will chair the board.
Like Kurmasheva, Rezaian said the support from the press club was invaluable when he was unjustly jailed in Iran from 2014 to 2016.
He sees the center as a way to help journalists who were recently released from prison, as well as newly exiled journalists.
Once journalists are out of harm's way, "there are so many gaps in the aftercare that it's very difficult for these people to get up and running," Rezaian said, pointing to immigration and bureaucratic challenges that often go unnoticed. "There is no one-size-fits-all approach to this."
In Rezaian's case, when he was released, he owed thousands of dollars in fines and late fees to the IRS on taxes technically owed while he was imprisoned in Iran.
"When we welcome people home after being in prison, or when a journalist who's been exiled gets their work authorization or their first job, it restores some faith in something that was lost for me for a while," Rezaian told VOA.
Continuing to advocate on behalf of American journalist Austin Tice is another priority for the center. The former U.S. Marine disappeared 12 years ago while reporting in Syria. He remains the only American journalist wrongfully detained abroad.
The Texas native is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer who worked for outlets that include The Washington Post, CBS and McClatchy. Aside from a brief video after his capture, little has been seen or heard of him since.
His mother, Debra Tice, told VOA she appreciated how consistent the National Press Club has been in its support. "I couldn't breathe without them," she said.
President-elect Donald Trump's 2025 return to the White House will be the third presidential administration change since her son was taken. Debra says she has grown frustrated with what she sees as inadequate efforts from the U.S. government to secure Austin's release.
"It can be kind of shocking to be slammed into reality," she said.
Changes of administration can be particularly difficult for wrongfully detained Americans, since their families must build relationships with new officials and update them on their loved ones' cases, according to McCarren.
"We really need to make this final push," McCarren said, adding that Austin Tice's case has not received the attention it should have.
McCarren says the new center will enhance the work the National Press Club has done for years on press freedom and help families of journalists under threat to navigate Washington.
Editor's note: Two of VOA's Press Freedom Desk staff are National Press Club members.