“We call for the unconditional and undelayed release of journalist Evan Gershkovich”

2023-04-03T15:56:58.889Z

FIGAROVOX/TRIBUNE - Twenty-two leaders of major French media groups, including the editorial director of Le Figaro Alexis Brézet, send a letter to the Russian ambassador in Paris, Alexei Mechkov, to denounce the detention of the Wall Street journalist Evan Gershkovich Journal.

Ambassador Alexei Meshkov,

Your counterpart Anatoli Antonov, Russian Ambassador to Washington, received a letter signed this Thursday, March 30, by the directors of major Western media who, from the

New York Times

to the

Times

of London, via the

Washington Post

, the

Guardian

, the BBC or the

New Yorker

, express their outrage at the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, a

Wall Street Journal

reporter and accused of espionage.

We, the undersigned, French media directors from all walks of life, would like to add our voice to theirs.

Evan Gershkovich is, as our colleagues wrote, a young but experienced professional.

An American citizen, he has lived in Moscow for several years and was accredited to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Read also“Let him go”: Biden calls on Moscow for the release of the arrested Wall Street Journal journalist

Accusing him of espionage, while he was on assignment in Yekaterinburg, is an absurdity coupled with an offense to the profession of journalist in general and press correspondent in particular.

And this gesture can only make impossible, by criminalizing it, the search for information on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Keeping Evan Gershkovitch in custody is tantamount to taking a hostage.

It is, for the attention of the last representatives of the international press still present in your country, a warning, a threat, even an act of terror.

The announced “trial” would amount to a tragic masquerade.

This is why we demand, through you, the release without conditions or delay of Evan Gershkovich.

Sincerely.

The petitioners :

Dov Alfon, editorial director of Liberation

Nicolas Barré, editorial director, Les Échos

Alexis Brézet, editorial director of Le Figaro

Nicolas Beytout, founder and editorial director of

L'Opinion

Eric Chol, editorial director of

L'Express

Jean-Marie Colombani, founder and director of Slate France