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.
