The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post published a joint letter in their newspapers Friday urging the United States government “to do everything in its power” to secure the release of wrongfully detained journalists.

The letter, which coincided with World Press Freedom Day, called attention to two journalists in particular: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Washington Post contributor Austin Tice.

Gershkovich, 32, has been jailed in Russia for 401 days on espionage charges the U.S. government calls unfounded. Last week, a Moscow court rejected Gershkovich’s appeal to end his pretrial detention, extending his time behind bars until at least late June.

Tice, now 42, was detained at a checkpoint outside Damascus, Syria, in August 2012, and has not been heard from since September 2012. 

In 2022, President Joe Biden said the U.S. government knew “with certainty” that Tice, a freelance photojournalist, “has been held” by the Syrian government. Syria’s foreign ministry denies holding Americans, including Tice.

“As we commemorate World Press Freedom Day, we once again come together to shine a light on the plight of missing and detained journalists across the globe. “For them, and for us, press freedom is about more than one day,” said the letter signed by the publishers and top editors of the three newspapers.

“We have not forgotten them. We remain united in this cause and continue to urge the U.S. government to do everything in its power to bring Evan, Austin and all unjustly detained journalists home safely.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 320 journalists are currently imprisoned worldwide and 65 others are missing. Twenty-one reporters have been killed in 2024, all but one of them in Israel or occupied Palestinian territories.

In an op-ed for Project Syndicate on Friday, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote “efforts to intimidate, curtail, and constrain the free press are becoming more frequent and brazen.”

“Attacks on journalists harm us all,” Ginsberg wrote. “Journalists perform the public’s due diligence on candidates, probing their professional records, the veracity of their claims, and the credibility of their promises. By reporting on policy achievements and failures, they help corroborate – or contradict – a candidate’s official narrative… Without such information, there can be no democracy.”

President Joe Biden issued a statement Friday marking World Press Freedom Day. In it, he called the free press “an essential pillar of democracy” and noted that 2023 “was one of the deadliest years for journalists in recent memory.”

“Journalism should not be a crime anywhere on Earth,” Biden said. “On World Press Freedom Day, we honor the bravery and sacrifice of journalists and media workers around the world risking everything in pursuit of truth.”

Biden said he plans to issue an executive order in the coming weeks that will declare the crackdown on press freedom a grave threat to national security and will authorize measures, including sanctions and visa bans, against those who act to silence the press.