Jailed WSJ reporter Gerhskovich writes letter to family

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich wrote his first letter to his family since being arrested in Russia on an allegation of espionage and said he remained optimistic, land looked forward to seeing them, reports Journal reporters Elizabeth Bernstein and Alan Cullison.

Bernstein and Cullison report, “‘I want to say that I am not losing hope,’ he wrote in a brief, two-page note that his family in Philadelphia received on Friday. ‘I read. I exercise. And I am trying to write. Maybe, finally, I am going to write something good.’

“The handwritten letter, dated April 5, is the first direct contact Mr. Gershkovich has had with his family since his arrest more than two weeks ago in Russia.

“The letter was written in Russian, the language he speaks at home with his parents, both Soviet émigrés. His mother, Ella Milman, said Mr. Gershkovich leavened the letter with gentle teasing of his parents, in an apparent effort to keep his family’s spirits up.”

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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.