Following is a statement from Emily Wilkins, president of the National Press Club on the outrageous and unjust sentence of 16 years in a Russian penal colony assigned to journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal — for the practice of journalism:
“Words are insufficient to express our outrage at the conviction of journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal in a Russian court today. He was simply doing his job and any suggestion to the contrary is a lie. Russia has made no evidence public in this sham trial for the simple reason there is no evidence. Evan Gershkovich is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime.
“Russia reviewed Evan’s application for a credential to work as a journalist. After their process of reviewing the substantial paperwork and checking every comma they granted him credentials to work in Russia. They did not have to do this. They could simply have refused to let him enter the country. At any time during his period of reporting they could have expelled him from the country for any reason or no reason at all. Arresting him was utterly unnecessary. And it was the first such action by Russia in the post-Soviet period.
“We are not surprised by today’s conviction as virtually all those charged in the Russia system are convicted. We call on the U.S. to continue to work on bringing Evan home. And we know a conviction in this system must precede a prisoner swap which we anticipate now will be possible. Yet, Russia managed to cover itself in disgrace with these actions today in a way that all the world can see. Whatever they hoped to gain from this cruel action will be overwhelmed by the damage they have done to their own reputation in the process.”
