Nearly eight months ago, Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested by Russia’s security services while doing his job — chronicling the life and times of Vladimir Putin’s country. Every day since has been a bad day for Evan, for his American family, for the Journal — and for the cause of press freedom globally. If Evan, an experienced and accredited journalist operating on familiar terrain, can be thrown in prison on false charges, then any journalist can.
Evan is the first American journalist arrested in Russia since the Cold War. But in an era when journalists the world over face an increasingly hostile environment — often because of the actions of governments — dealing with a reporter’s false arrest is going to be something that newsrooms, and civil societies writ large, will have to wrestle with sooner or later.
It is easy enough, I suppose, to give only glancing consideration to why that matters and then to move on. The news business, after all, creates a fresh and diverting story every hour. It is the definition of what journalists do.
I would only ask you to consider, if just for a moment, the opposite of that frequently bemoaned condition of the perpetual news cycle: What if you could get no valid information at all?
Open societies remain extraordinarily reliant on the press, for all its faults, to inform and effect change
Because that is the kind of void Evan is facing as he sits in Lefortovo prison in Moscow without access to a free, unfettered flow of information. And it is what we face if press freedom is so suppressed that we are deprived of the vital facts we need to evaluate and judge our own place, and our country’s place, in the world.
What could be worse than the images and stories emanating from the Israel-Hamas war and the war in Ukraine and countless other tragedies around the globe? How about being so ignorant that we are completely unaware of the world that surrounds us… until it is too late to alter whatever destiny may befall us. Open societies remain extraordinarily reliant on the press, for all of its faults, to inform, educate and ultimately effect change. None of that would happen without the work journalists do day in and day out, often at grave personal risk.
Little wonder then that repressive regimes view an independent press as anathema to their societal control. And increasingly we see them act on it.
In days past, it was typically rogue groups that captured journalists to gain attention for their cause and maybe a ransom payment. Today, it is also governments who target journalists to deflect attention from their actions.
That is the backdrop against which Evan’s drama is playing out. At 32, he has dedicated his career so far to covering Russia. He is perfectly suited to the job. An American, he is the son of Soviet emigrés who fled persecution to settle in the United States then raised Evan and his sister, Danielle, with a deep knowledge of Russian history, language and culture.
After being yanked out of a restaurant while he was reporting in the city of Yekaterinburg, Evan was pulled up on a false charge of espionage.
The US government and the Journal have repeatedly and vehemently denied the charge against him. Instead he is being prosecuted for reporting. Since his arrest, Russian authorities have publicly presented no evidence but have repeatedly extended his detention. The US government has officially designated Evan as “wrongfully detained”, its acknowledgment that he is a political prisoner.
The future of the process is opaque. At some point, we assume he will be tried, probably in secret, and convicted, given the system is stacked against him. His stellar work chronicling Russia, its people, its economy and its military has been silenced — at least for now.
Understandably, his imprisonment has had a chilling effect on other news organisations’ willingness to maintain reporters on the ground there. The result: a brown-out, if not a complete blackout, on facts we need to understand present-day Russia.
Likely the only way Evan will avoid serving a very lengthy sentence is for the US government to find a way to persuade Russia to release an innocent man.
In the meantime, it is the mission of Evan’s colleagues and friends to spread awareness of his plight so that we may create momentum toward his release. #IStandWithEvan has become a rallying cry for all of us who miss him and his work.
We would welcome your support. Ways to take action are available on wsj.com/Evan. And we will keep the light shining until he is back with his family and back in The Wall Street Journal’s newsroom.
More broadly, it should be the mission of all of us to do what we can to support press freedom around the world. Because a world without press freedom is a world without vital facts. However disturbing the facts might be, a world without reliable facts is surely worse.
