Journalists are not criminals
Many journalists who claimed to have known Gershkovich posted on Twitter their shock at his arrest. They said that they respected him in the field.
wrote Polina, a correspondent for the Financial Times. Journalistry is not a crime. These allegations are absurd.”
Joshua Yaffa, a New Yorker reporter, praised Gershkovich’s foresight in reporting on Russia during its invasion Ukraine, and stated that the accusations against him were “obviously false.”
“News from Russia: My friend, colleague and highly professional reporter @evangershkovich was detained while doing his work in Russia. We trust that he will be released soon. “Journalism is not a crime,” Yaffa wrote.
Robyn Dixon , Washington Post reporter, said that she “admires and knows” Gershkovich. She also called him an “excellent and highly respected journalist.”
Leonid Ragozin, journalist and author, said in a tweet that he knew @evangershkovich personally. He is clearly not a spy but a very competent journalist. He has been taken hostage by the Kremlin.”
Gershkovich was the son of Russian-speaking parents. His father and mother are both from the former Soviet Union. They fled the country in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, his family couldn’t be reached immediately at the phone numbers provided for them.
New Jersey: Early life
Gershkovich was born in Princeton, central New Jersey, and attended Princeton High School. He won four varsity letters in soccer, according to his biography on Bowdoin College’s athletic page.
He was instrumental in leading his club’s soccer team to the Region I Semifinals, and the New Jersey State Championship in 2007.
Wayne Sutcliffe (a Princeton High School physical education teacher and head soccer coach) recalled Gershkovich’s leadership role on the team.
“I knew Evan Gershkovich well. “He was the captain of Princeton High School’s 2009 soccer team that won the New Jersey State Championship,” he stated in a statement. “I’ve been receiving text messages from Princeton High School soccer alumni all morning, trying to find a way to help Evan’s family.
Princeton Public Schools stated that Gershkovich was an “outstanding pupil and an outstanding athlete.” It expressed concern over Gershkovich’s detention.
The district stated that it was a difficult morning for Princeton High School graduates, especially the many PHS soccer players who were very close to Mr. Gershkovich.
Gershkovich was also a Bowdoin student, a private liberal-arts college in Brunswick, Maine. He was a philosophy major. In a statement, the school stated that Gershkovich was an active alumnus who would mentor Russian majors.
“He cares a lot… about the Russian people”
Jeremy Berke, a friend and close confidant who has known Gershkovich from their freshman year at college, described him as the “most outgoing, extroverted person” he’s ever seen.
Berke stated, “I don’t want this to become an opaque international incident. This is my friend.” “The whole world should know that he is the center of everyone’s world, and everyone who is in his circle, and everyone who is friends with them.”
Berke stated that Berke’s gregarious, personable nature is what makes him such an excellent journalist. It draws people in and makes them feel like they are the most important person in a room.
Berke stated, “It’s difficult to describe without knowing him. But whatever you’re saying, he is fully engaged, with it, and he encourages you to keep talking.”
Berke stated that Gershkovich was a writer and worked for their college paper, The Bowdoin Orient. Berke believes Gershkovich got the journalism bug after Gershkovich began working as a freelancer for English-language publications while he was studying abroad in Thailand.
This led Gershkovich to his true calling, reporting on Russia.
Berke stated that he cares deeply about Russia and Russian people.
Russia: Career in Journalism, Risks
Gershkovich graduated from college in 2014. He began his journalism career in 2014 as a news assistant at The New York Times. In 2017, Gershkovich was hired by The Moscow Times as a reporter. After three years, he moved to the Agence France-Presse before being hired by The Moscow Times in 2017.
The Journal hired him in January 2022. He covers Russia, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union. He briefly spoke about the challenges of being a Russian journalist in a 2020 interview, which Bowdoin posted to its website.
You often hear it is difficult to get people to talk when you begin reporting in Russia. While that might be true for Russian officials, it is not necessarily the case with all of them. However, he stated that many people are eager to share their stories if they are able to find the right people.
Gershkovich was the first journalist to be charged in Russia with espionage since the Cold War.
Americans have been targeted by Russia in recent years for what they claim are politically motivated arrests. Paul Whelan is a U.S. corporate security officer who has been held in Russia since 2018.
The U.S. reached an agreement with Russia to release Brittney Griner, the Phoenix Mercury center’s head of basketball, in return for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer. Griner was arrested after she was found with vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. Although she pleaded guilty, she said that she did not intend to commit any crime.
Matthew Bodner knows Evan Gershkovich from 2017 and considers him a close friend.
