Headline Roundup • March 29th, 2024
US Journalist's Imprisonment in Russia Hits 1-Year Mark
Summary from the AllSides News Team
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal (Center bias) has now been detained in Russia for one year on charges of trying to steal military secrets.
The Details: The 32-year-old was reporting in Russia at the time of his arrest in March 2023. Gershkovich is the first U.S. journalist arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War. His detention has been extended three times, and multiple appeals from his lawyers have been rejected. U.S. authorities deny the allegations against him.
Key Quotes: "We will continue working every day to secure his release," President Joe Biden said in a statement this week, while also calling the detention "wholly unjust and illegal."
How the Media Covered it: The Journal and other outlets, especially on the left and in the center, highlighted Gershkovich's detainment as a top story Friday. Some, like the Journal and Axios (Lean Left), reported that he was "wrongfully detained." Others attributed that sentiment to Biden and other leaders rather than reporting it as fact.
Featured Coverage of this Story
ALEX PANTLING/GETTY IMAGES
Evan Gershkovich was supposed to be with his friends in Berlin the first week of April 2023.
The Wall Street Journal Russia correspondent was set to stay in an Airbnb in the edgy Neukölln neighborhood, a base to explore the city’s cobble-lined streets with his tightknit crew of journalist pals exiled there from Moscow. He was going to drink coffee in hipster cafes and chat into the night over glasses of beer.
It was the start of his stolen year.
Russian authorities detained Evan in Yekaterinburg on March 29, 2023, and threw him...
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of Russian authorities wrongfully detaining Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Why it matters: Gershkovich has now spent 366 days behind bars on sham charges, with no indication of when he may be freed or whether a trial will be held. He is the the first U.S. journalist that Russia has arrested and accused of espionage since the Cold War.
The latest: In a letter published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, his family wrote that the past year "has been unimaginable for our family in so many ways."
"We will...
President Biden said Friday he will “never stop working” to bring home Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in Russia one year ago.
Mr. Gershkovich, an American, was arrested on March 29, 2023, on charges of espionage that his employer and U.S. officials consider bogus. Mr. Biden called Friday a “painful anniversary.”
“Journalism is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter —risking his safety to shine the light of truth on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine,” Mr. Biden said.
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