‘This is for journalism around the world and for press freedom’
By Tyana Jackson
Members of the National Association of Black Journalists said they were stunned and relieved Thursday morning when they learned that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was released in a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia.
“This is a win and is so much bigger than the Wall Street Journal,” said Bowdeya Tweh, Chicago Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. “This is for journalism around the world and for press freedom.”
Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023, and the Kremlin charged him with espionage. The U.S. maintained he was wrongly imprisoned, along with three others who were released with him: former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian dissident, the Wall Street Journal reports. Several other Russian dissidents were also released, the Journal says.
It was the largest prisoner exchange involving the two countries, and included 24 prisoners and at least six countries, according to the Journal.
Gershkovich was convicted last month in a secret, three-day trial to 16 years in a high-security prison.
His release has given journalists hope that their publications will support them in their work.
“Journalism has always been known to be a challenging job, and investigative reporting is a higher tier,” Bloomberg reporter Nora Mulinda said. “Staying connected to places that support you is important to your safety as a journalist.”
Arriana McLymore of Reuters said many journalists do hard work internationally.
“I see a lot of my colleagues overseas doing impactful work and to see someone get jailed is really intimidating,” McLymore said. “The Wall Street Journal did the best that they could, and that’s what you want to see out of a newsroom and from the journalism industry—trying to keep their reporters safe.”
WSJ’s Deputy Politics Editor Joshua Jamerson said Gershkovich’s imprisonment was tough for him because they are nearly the same age, Jamerson is 31 and Gershkovich is 32.
“I know what it’s like to be meeting with a source on an assignment but he was just taken,” Jamerson said. “In a way, his detention, as wrongful as it was, motivated me to do the work that he couldn’t do.”
But overall, journalists at NABJ expressed a combination of joy and satisfaction.
“I think it’s amazing that he’s been released,” Mulinda said. “It has been a long time coming, and it shows how people are behind the safety of journalists. It feels empowering that he will be coming home.”
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