How Russia’s war against Ukraine challenges journalism? Part 1
What does the U.S. journalist’s arrest in Russia mean
The Wall Street Journal correspondent, Evan Gershkovich, was arrested in Russia by FSB recently. He was covering the Russian invasion issues such as mobilization, recruitment to the Wagner private war company, and economical consequences of the full-scale war. Russian court in Moscow accused him of espionage, because he, according to the FSB, was collecting classified top secret state information.
So, now it’s time to talk about challenges that journalists face while covering the Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Evan Gershkovich in Moscow after the arrest. Photo: Reuters
American journalist faces 20 years in prison. Most of my colleagues who work or worked as Russia correspondents for international newsrooms, describe the arrest of WSJ reporter as a hostage situation. There are talks that FSB followed Evan on his journey to Ekaterinburg where he met with his source regarding Wagner group, to catch him red-handed. Most likely, Russia wants to exchange him for some of the Russian spies that were arrested by the U.S. – for example, Sergey Cherkasov who was involved in a fraud in the U.S., and arrested in Brazil in March.
I think, FSB arrested Evan exactly for the exchange purpose, because it is obvious that he did not collect classified information simply because he did not have an access to a state secret information, and just did his journalist duty. Independent journalism in today’s Russia is a crime then.
This is the first time after USSR collapsed Russia takes journalist as a hostage, to confront the US. It became possible because of a few reasons.
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