Russia must release Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich | Our view (2024)

3-minute read

Journalists should not be detained. Journalists should not be arrested for doing their jobs — at home or abroad. Journalists should not be held — or tortured.

And yet, journalists are routinely detained and hassled. When reporting abroad, our colleagues accept a great many risks to their own safety to fulfill the essential calling of telling the truth and shining light in the darkest corners of our world.

Such was case for Evan Gershkovich, the Moscow Bureau Chief for The Wall Street Journal.

A U.S. Citizen who grew up in Princeton, Gershkovich was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service last Wednesday while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg — a city east of Moscow and the Urals.

The F.S.B., the Russian security service that succeeded the K.G.B., has imprisoned Gershkovich in the notorious Lefortovo Prison, which was long used by Russian communists to house dissidents.

Gershkovich will be held until a May 29 trial — accused of espionage in the service of the U.S. government. It’s far more likely — as it was in the cases of Brittney Griner, the WNBA star held on drug charges by Russia until earlier this year, and Trevor Reed, a U.S. Marine who was charged with assault and Michigan man Paul Whelan, accused of espionage and still detained in Russia after four years — that Gershkovich may remain in Russian custody for far longer.

The Wall Street Journal and U.S. officials have vehemently denied the accusation and have called for Gershkovich’s release.

More perspective: Brittney Griner's freedom had a hidden cost. His name is Evan Gershkovich

“The actions of the Russian government are completely unjustified,” Emma Tucker, the Journal’s editor, wrote in a letter to her staff last week. “Evan is a member of the free press who, right up until he was arrested, was engaged in newsgathering. Any suggestions otherwise are false. His sole purpose in his work is to capture issues occurring around the world and to shed light on them so that the public can make informed decisions about how to navigate the future. We continue to call for his immediate release.”

We echo that call.

The Putin regime has no business detaining American journalists.

We join more than 30 news organizations and global press freedom advocacy institutions around the globe in calling for Gershkovich’s immediate release.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization we have long supported, has also called for Gershkovich’s release. CPJ was among the signatories in a March 30 letter sent to Anatoly I. Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

“By detaining the American journalist Evan Gershkovich, Russia has crossed the Rubicon and sent a clear message to foreign correspondents that they will not be spared from the ongoing purge of the independent media in the country,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.

On Monday, outlets across the globe followed Russian state news reports with the encouraging news that Gershkovich was appealing his arrest.

But, despite our hopes, a complicated and surely long slog lies ahead for Gershkovich.

The espionage charges leveled at him will make for a complex and likely tedious period ahead — recent history has shown that Russian detentions of Americans are aimed at transactional goals. In the cases of Griner and Reed, whose releases were ultimately negotiated through diplomatic channels orchestrated by the Biden administration, trades were made for Russians serving prison sentences of their own for crimes committed on American soil.

That said, neither Griner nor Reed were journalists. Nor were they journalists accredited with the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The message from Putin’s Kremlin, in arresting a credentialed American journalist working for an international outlet with a broad reputation and journalistic tradition is deeply chilling.

“Gershkovich’s unwarranted and unjust arrest is a significant escalation in your government’s anti-press actions,” wrote the signers of the letter to Antonov. “Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalized and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law.”

Gershkovich should be released directly and we urgently call on the Biden administration to pursue his release with all dispatch. Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken must continue to press his counterparts in Moscow for Gershkovich’s safe release.

Gershkovich grew up as the son of two Russian emigres in Princeton, the university town in Central Jersey that has and surely always will command international attention. He played on the Princeton High School soccer team.

At Bowdoin College in Maine, he was a staff writer at The Bowdoin Orient, the college’s feisty newspaper. He was involved in other student journalism opportunities, too — as an editor on a college magazine and as a DJ on the Bowdoin student radio station.

After graduating with a degree in philosophy and English in 2014, Gershkovich studied in Thailand on a fellowship from Princeton. Gershkovich then landed at The New York Times, where he worked as a news assistant for public editors Margaret Sullivan and Liz Spayd. After a few other assignments, he decamped to Moscow — he grew up speaking Russian at home, as had been reported — for a job as a correspondent at The Moscow Times. A stint at Agence France Presse followed and, in 2022, Gershkovich was named Moscow bureau chief for the Journal.

This week, as our newsroom pauses to celebrate Passover, Easter and Ramadan, we encourage our staff — and our readers — to follow our Wall Street Journal colleagues’ example: Leave an empty chair for Evan at your seder, your Easter table or as you break your fast.

President Biden, Secretary Blinken and all others involved in strategizing a path forward, we say this: Bring Evan home.

#istandwithevan #westandwithevan

Daniel Sforza is executive editor of NorthJersey.com and The Record and is New Jersey state editor for the USA TODAY Network.

Ed Forbes is senior director for news and engagement for NorthJersey.com and The Record and regional opinions and engagement editor for the USA TODAY Network Northeast.

Mike Feeley is executive editor of DelawareOnline.com and The News Journal and is Delaware state editor for the USA TODAY Network.

Phil Freedman is executive editor of app.com and the Asbury Park Press.

Audrey Harvin is executive editor of The Burlington County Times.

Michael Kilian is executive editor of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and is New York state editor for the USA TODAY Network.

Carrie Yale is executive editor of lohud.com and The Journal News.

Kevin Hogan is executive editor of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin / pressconnects.com and a regional editor for the USA TODAY Network.

Danielle Camilli is editor of the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer.

Ashley Catherine Fontones is managing editor of the Pocono Record and the Tri-County Independent.

Lynne Sullivan is executive editor of The Providence Journal.

Anne Brennan is executive editor of the Cape Cod Times.

Michael McDermott is executive editor of telegram.com and the Telegram and Gazette.

Matt Martin is executive editor of the Erie Times-News and Ohio/Pennsylvania group editor for the USA TODAY Network.

Scott Fisher is Central Pennsylvania news director for the USA Today Network.

Patrick O'Shea is editor of The Beaver County Times and Ellwood City Ledger.

Anjanette Delgado is interim executive editor of the Detroit Free Press.

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Michael McCarter is Managing Editor/Standards, Ethics and Inclusion for USA TODAY.

Ray Rivera is vice president of news for Middle America for the USA TODAY Network and executive editor of The Oklahoman.