‘Journalism is Not a Crime’: Putin’s Russia Slammed For Putting WSJ Reporter on Trial For Espionage

Russian authorities announced Thursday that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will stand trial for espionage after being detained for over 400 days.

CNN’s Matthew Chance explained that it’s unlikely Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, will ever show any of the evidence against Gershkovich, but they did for the first time publicly announce what he is charged with.

Chance told Jake Tapper, “I expect the trial is going to be behind closed doors. But in the indictment that was released for the first time today, they gave some details about what happened, what he’s actually accused of. They said he was working on instructions, you mentioned from the CIA, collecting secret information on a tank factory.”

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller pulled no punches in lambasting the charges as having “absolutely zero credibility.”

“Evan has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place. Journalism is not a crime. The charges against him are false. And the Russian government knows that they’re false. He should be released immediately,” added Miller.

Almar Latour, Dow Jones CEO and publisher of the Journal, as well as its editor in chief, Emma Tucker, released a scathing statement as well. “Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous,” their statement said, calling the charges “false and baseless.”

“The Russian regime’s smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies. Journalism is not a crime. Evan’s case is an assault on free press,” the statement said. “We had hoped to avoid this moment and now expect the U.S. government to redouble efforts to get Evan released,” they concluded.

The AP noted that Gershkovich’s arrest continues to reverberate throughout Russia and has had a chilling effect on freedom of speech. “He was the first U.S. journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986 at the height of the Cold War. Gershkovich’s arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country had enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine,” the AP explained.

Donald Trump has been campaigning on Gershkovich’s detention, wildly claiming that only he can secure his release from Putin — who “will do that” for him, but only after the election.

Watch the clip above via CNN.