Alumnus Pavel Butorin to receive honor in fight for press freedom

Pavel Butorin, MA ’98, director of Current Time TV at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, is a journalist and advocate tirelessly working to ensure free access to information across the globe.

Butorin and his wife, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, will receive the James W. Foley Foundation’s World Press Freedom Award on May 6 for their unrelenting advocacy for press freedom. The Foley Freedom Awards honor individuals who “stand with victims of hostage-taking, fight for the freedom of the unjustly detained, defend press freedom, and serve our nation with excellence and integrity.”

In 2023, Kurmasheva was imprisoned in Russia, where she stayed for nearly 400 days before her release in 2024. Butorin, with the support of the James W. Foley Foundation, brought her home in a complex multinational prisoner exchange.

“The foundation advocates for Americans wrongfully detained abroad, and it also promotes journalists’ safety worldwide,” Butorin said. “I'm lucky to have this organization support me.”

In addition to feeling lucky to have the foundation’s support, Butorin said he is honored to be presented with this award.

“I feel incredibly humbled to be awarded this honor because past awardees … they're all very courageous, intrepid journalists who worked in high-risk zones, dangerous situations, war zones,” he said.

Butorin said he looks forward to interacting with the community at the May ceremony in Washington, D.C.

“The event itself, the Foley Freedom Awards, is very special also because it happens at the National Press Club, which is very nonpartisan,” he said. “It really brings together people of all walks of life. Policy makers, activists, journalists.”

Butorin and Kurmasheva continue to advocate for the release of Americans and journalists wrongfully imprisoned in foreign countries, in addition to helping ensure global access to unbiased information, work that Butorin credits his telecommunications training at OHIO with preparing him for. 

“I think that Ohio University was where I first learned about unbiased and uncensored  journalism and free speech,” Butorin said. “Those weren't just abstract concepts for me because I had grown up in Soviet Russia, where the government controlled the media, and at OU I saw something different.”

The connection to OHIO and the Scripps College of Communication helped Butorin and his wife long after his graduation. He said that Dean Scott Titsworth was among the first to write a letter to then-Senator Sherrod Brown requesting that Kurmasheva’s situation be designated as wrongful detention. 

“That was very important for us at the time,” Butorin said. “It was that kind of institutional support that showed our family that we weren't alone.”

This institutional support continues as Butorin and Kurmasheva receive their award. 

“The Scripps College is so happy that Pavel is receiving this recognition,” Titsworth said. “Over the course of his career and certainly as a result of his partner’s detention in Russia, Pavel has championed the importance of a free and vibrant press. His work as director of Current Time TV and Digital has emphasized news gathering and information even in countries where censorship and intimidation is the norm.”

Butorin, with his work and recognition, adds to the long list of award-winning OHIO alumni across the globe. He illustrates the power of the Bobcat network and an education in Athens. 

“OU didn't just educate me,” Butorin said. “It was really a pathway for me, and it showed me the kind of society I wanted to help build.”