Ryan Lizza of Politico spoke with Dow Jones & Co. CEO Almar Latour about its efforts to free imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Here is an excerpt:
What is the current status of the U.S. government’s efforts to bring Evan home and how has this played out over the past year?
Without speaking for the administration in any form, I would characterize it as a very intense effort. There are people dedicated to situations like these in the State Department. The Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs is a unit within the State Department that concentrates on cases like these, not necessarily around press freedom, but around Americans who are wrongfully detained.
There are many senior administration officials who have commented — the president, of course, has commented on the case. There is just a lot of activity from the White House and the State Department. What has been very impressive is how people have coalesced around this cause and how so many people are giving it their all.
That said, the outcome is sort of binary: He’s either free or he’s not. And so if the question is, “Has enough been done?” Well, we’ll know that when he walks free.
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