FT editorial: Release WSJ’s Gershkovich now

The Financial Times has published an editorial calling for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been arrested in Russia.

The editorial states, “Gershkovich was simply doing his job as a journalist. He was fully accredited by Russia’s foreign ministry, granting him an official green light to report in the country, but this too was ignored.

“Russia had a track record of stifling the free press even before its invasion of Ukraine. But since the war began, the risks to reporters have risen significantly. In March 2022 it enacted laws imposing strict censorship on the conflict, essentially making most reporting on it a criminal act. Hundreds of Russian reporters have fled the country, and numerous independent Russian outlets have been shut down. Many news organisations have pulled their reporters from the country, especially if they are Russian nationals, out of concern for their safety. Gershkovich’s arrest has pressured other reporters to leave; the danger is that it will increasingly turn Russia into a black box at a time when the world needs to understand what’s happening there.

“Every news organisation knows the dangers of sending reporters into repressive states and war zones. Yet it is the purpose of the profession to take calculated risks to unveil truths and hold authority to account. Autocrats are threatened by that.”

Read more here.