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Duration: 1:01:00

ABOUT THE LECTURE

What does it mean to bear witness when authoritarian governments seek to suppress independent journalism and criminalize the pursuit of truth?

In this year's Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich draws on his book, This Cursed Beautiful Land, to reflect on his years reporting from Russia, his arrest by Russian security forces in 2023, and his nearly 500 days of imprisonment before his release in a landmark prisoner exchange. Through his extraordinary experience, Gershkovich examines the role of journalism in documenting authoritarian power, preserving historical truth, and revealing realities that would otherwise remain hidden. In the spirit of Daniel Pearl's legacy of curiosity, empathy, and bridge-building, he explores the ethical responsibilities of journalists and explains why a free press remains essential to democratic accountability and liberty.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Evan Gershkovich is a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal based in Berlin. Born in New Jersey to Soviet émigrés, he lived in Russia for over five years before his 2023 arrest and subsequent sixteen-month imprisonment on false espionage charges. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Economist and Foreign Policy, and he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2025 as part of an investigative team for The Journal. Evan Gershkovich is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Kal Raustiala is the Promise Institute Distinguished Professor of Comparative and International Law at UCLA Law School and Professor at the UCLA International Institute. He currently serves as Director of the UCLA Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations and Director of the International and Comparative Law Program. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he is a Senior Fellow at the Pacific Council for International Policy.

ABOUT THE DANIEL PEARL MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES

In sponsoring the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture Series, the Burkle Center for International Relations celebrates the memory of Daniel Pearl as a prominent journalist who dedicated his life to bringing joy and understanding to the world. Past presenters have included David Remnick of The New Yorker, Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic, Christopher Hitchens, CNN's Anderson Cooper, David Brooks and Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, ABC’s Ted Koppel, CBS’s Jeff Greenfield, NPR's Daniel Schorr, CNN's Larry King, former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Ambassador Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens, CNN's Fareed Zakaria, author and journalist Bob Woodward, CNN's Jake Tapper, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, former world chess champion and Russian pro-democracy leader Garry Kasparov, award-winning author and experimental psychologist Steven Pinker, and most recently, Haviv Rettig Gur, Journalist and Senior Analyst at The Times of Israel.

To learn more and support this lecture series, click here.