Dow Jones attorney: Russia must face consequences for Gershkovich arrest

Evan Gershkovich

Russia must face consequences for its detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a lawyer for the paper said, reports Eric Tucker of the Associated Press.

Tucker writes, “‘In a scenario like this, where a reporter is taken off the beat for just doing his job — wrongfully detained — there ought to be immediate consequences from the government,’ said Jason Conti, general counsel at Dow Jones, which publishes the newspaper. He was speaking at a National Press Club event in Washington.

“Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, on espionage charges, which he and the newspaper deny, while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. The U.S. government has designated him as wrongfully detained and Russian authorities have detailed no evidence to support the charges.

“He was visited in jail on Thursday by U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy, according to the American embassy in Russia, which said in a social media post that ‘Evan remains strong and resilient, but it is a tragedy he awaits a trial for a crime he did not commit.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.