The large journalistic family marks a sad anniversary. For a year, this Friday, the reporter of Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich is imprisoned in Russia. Mr. Gershkovich, 32, has still not had his trial and Moscow announced on Tuesday that his detention was extended by three months, while declaring that “contacts” were underway with a view to a possible exchange.
“The pre-trial detention of Evan Gershkovich is unjustified,” underlines Reporters Without Borders (RSF), denouncing a “disguised hostage-taking” and calling for his immediate release.
Russian intelligence services (FSB) arrested Mr. Gershkovich on March 29, 2023, while he was reporting in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals, almost 1,800 kilometers from Moscow. He appeared to be working on the Russian arms industry and the Wagner paramilitary group, but Russia never publicly provided evidence and the entire procedure was classified. The Kremlin simply asserted that he had been caught “in the act” of espionage. Evan Gershkovich has always firmly rejected these accusations, as have Washington, his newspaper and those close to him.
Washington accuses Moscow of having arrested Evan Gershkovich to exchange him for Russians detained in Western countries, like many other American citizens arrested in recent years in Russia.
We remember basketball player Brittney Griner, arrested for drug possession in February 2022 and released nine months later against Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, imprisoned in the United States.
President Vladimir Putin says this time he is willing to exchange the reporter of the Wall Street Journal against Vadim Krassikov, imprisoned for life in Germany for the murder of a Chechen opponent in Berlin in 2019. “I don’t see how else he could be released,” insists Maria Popova, professor of political science at McGill University.
Detention of unprecedented gravity
Born in the United States to parents who immigrated from Russia, Gershkovich worked for six years in Moscow, notably for the Moscow TimesAgence France-Presse and the Wall Street Journal. Unlike many of his Western colleagues, he decided to stay in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Determined to describe the way Russians experienced the conflict, he spoke with relatives of killed soldiers, critics of Vladimir Putin, and looked into the effects of sanctions on the Russian economy. The risks were real. But the Washington Post recalls that the journalist was duly accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry, with official permission to work in the country.
His prolonged detention is of unprecedented gravity for an American journalist since the end of the USSR. Reporters Without Borders emphasizes that it marks “a before and an after” in the situation of foreign correspondents in Russia, “who are subject to more and more pressure” of a different nature.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Professor of political science at McGill University Maria Popova
This reflects the fact that Russia is becoming increasingly anti-Western and wishes to signal its hostility.
Maria Popova, professor of political science at McGill University
The expert recalls that another Western journalist is currently detained in Russia, Alsu Kurmasheva, reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Of dual Russian and American nationality, Mme Kurmasheva is being held on charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent,” an offense that can carry a five-year prison sentence.
The correspondent of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo Xavier Colás, for his part, was expelled from the country last week after the authorities refused to renew his visa, after 12 years of working in Russia. Back in Spain, the journalist declared that he had only done “his job”. He was accused, among other things, of having covered demonstrations by women whose partners had served in the Russian army.
“They want to make examples for other journalists,” suggests M.me Popova.
A before and an after
According to the political scientist, press freedom in Russia “is close to 0%” since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. The Reporers Without Borders barometer estimates that at least 32 journalists are currently in prison for reasons related to their profession, a record since RSF began counting the number of journalists detained.
Russia also occupies 164e place out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index established by RSF.
This position places it in the category of countries where the situation of press freedom is considered to be “very serious” and “worsening”, even though the working conditions of journalists have been deteriorating for years in the country.
“It has become extremely dangerous for journalists who resist self-censorship,” insists Elena García, spokesperson for RSF. They are forced to hide or flee to practice their profession in complete independence, when they are not arrested for refusing to collaborate with the authorities. There are still a few journalists on the ground capable of providing reliable information, most of them working anonymously or on light subjects. »
According to the Reporters Without Borders barometer, 547 journalists are currently detained around the world.