In the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Wall Street Journal, the face and name of their reporter imprisoned nearly 5,000 miles away is everywhere. Paul Beckett is the Wall Street Journal's assistant editor but his real job, since the day they learned Russia had arrested Evan Gershkovich, is to get the newspaper's reporter home from Russia.

Moscow

An American reporter has reached a one-year milestone since being detained in Russia. The journalist, who works for the Wall Street Journal, has become a prominent concern for both the newspaper's staff and broader circles advocating for press freedom and journalists' safety worldwide. The story is particularly significant in the Wall Street Journal's Washington, D.C. bureau, where reminders of the reporter's plight are omnipresent.

Paul Beckett, the Wall Street Journal’s assistant editor, has assumed a crucial role in the ongoing efforts to secure the reporter's release from Russia. Since receiving news of Evan Gershkovich's arrest, Beckett's primary focus has shifted from his editorial duties to spearheading initiatives aimed at bringing Gershkovich back home. This dedication underscores the Wall Street Journal's commitment to the safety and well-being of its journalists, regardless of where they are in the world.



American reporter marks one year in Russian jail

In the Washington, D.C. Bureau of the Wall Street Journal, the face and name of their reporter, imprisoned nearly 5,000 miles away, is everywhere. We have found over the last year that we know he's a great reporter. We've also discovered he's an extraordinary young man. Paul Beckett is assistant editor of the Wall Street Journal. That's his official title, but his real job, since the day they learned Russia had arrested him, is getting Evan Gershkovich home. At the time, I was Washington bureau chief for the journal, so I was the person that our editor-in-chief called when he went missing. I was the one that went to the National Security Council and the State Department and the Pentagon and the White House and said, You have to pay attention to this, please. We're going to need your help because we can't find our guy. So since then, it's just become more and more of my job, and now it's full-time. Full-time work now headed into a second year. Since his arrest in March of 2023, Gershkovich has appeared in a Russian courtroom at least a dozen times, the most recent this past Tuesday, when a judge once again extended the American journalist's detention until the end of June. Outside the courthouse in Moscow after the hearing, strong words from the U.S. ambassador to Russia. Evan's case is not about evidence, due process, or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends, as the Kremlin is also doing in the case of Paul Whelan. Paul Whelan is another American and a former U.S. Marine, also wrongfully detained in Russia, so far, for five years. One effort to free Gershkovich and Whelan reportedly involved a complex prisoner exchange for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian security services agent convicted in Germany of a political assassination in 2021. But Germany was reportedly only willing to release Krasikov if Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were also included in the exchange, and Navalny's recent death appears to have stalled any such deal. The editor following Evan's case every day, though, remains hopeful. The Wall Street Journal will not solve this. It's going to be a government-to-government negotiation at some point, hopefully soon. What is, I think, really important is for people to just think about Evan, talk about him, and I think the more awareness we can create around that, the easier those negotiations will be when the right time comes. Until then, Gershkovich's colleagues try to support him from afar, writing messages of hope on a newsroom banner calling for his release. Police detain over 500 in Moscow. And hosting a 24-hour read-a-thon of his stories, marking one year behind bars. Of course, we never planned to do it this way. What the world has missed from Evan is a huge amount of reporting on a country that matters an enormous amount to the United States and to the West. What Evan has missed, he has missed the job that he loves, he's missed the family that he loves, he missed the friends that he loves, and it's time for him to come back. Back to a place where so many are pulling for his return. Maya Rodriguez, Scripps News, Washington.

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