The Wall Street Journal’s man in Moscow must be set free.
Published: 03/04/2024 06:00
This is an editorial. The leader expresses Aftenposten’s view. The editor-in-chief and political editor are responsible for the content.
A whole year has now passed since the American journalist Evan Gershkovich (32) was arrested by Russian police. He was arrested during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, east of the Ural Mountains. Afterwards, he was locked up, most of the time in the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, where the Norwegian border inspector Frode Berg was also imprisoned from 2017 to 2019.
Gershkovich is a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. On Friday, the newspaper left most of the front page blank on the anniversary of the arrest itself. “This is where his report should have been”, read the headline above the large, white surface. And as a subtitle: “One year in a Russian prison. A year of stolen stories, joys, memories. Crime: Journalism.”
In dictatorships there is little room for freedom of the press. In dictatorships that wage war, conditions are extra tight. Between 1,500 and 1,800 Russian journalists have fled the country since the annexation of Krym in 2014, according to a survey made by the organization Reporters Without Borders.
Aftenposten and NRK still have offices in Moscow. But otherwise, only a small number of Western media have remained in Russia after the new law that was adopted by the Duma in March 2022, shortly after the major invasion of Ukraine. Whoever spreads “fake news” about the Russian military will be punished with up to 15 years. The law does not provide any exception for foreign correspondents with accreditation from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Officially, Gershkovich is not imprisoned for his journalism. He is in custody, charged with espionage. The criminal case against him is scheduled for 30 June. President Vladimir Putin and his press spokesman Dmitry Peskov have made loose hints that Gershkovich could be released as part of a prisoner exchange with countries in the West. Last week at the latest, Peskov announced that there is ongoing contact between the parties about this, but that things must be allowed to happen quietly.
The idea should be that Gershkovich can be released together with Paul Whelan. The former naval officer has been imprisoned since 2018 and is now serving a 16-year prison sentence for espionage. In return, Russia will be keen to get Vadim Krasikov released from a prison in Berlin. He is serving a life sentence after shooting and killing a Chechen war veteran and asylum seeker in 2019.
In war, the truth is the first victim, wrote the tragedian Aeschylus two and a half thousand years ago. Putin tragically demonstrates the foresight of this ancient Greek.
Russia’s president is using a journalist and free speech as hostages. It is shameful and unacceptable.
