Newswise — WASHINGTON (June 26, 2024) – Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich went on trial today in Russia. He faces up to 20 years in prison on an espionage charge that he, the Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. State Department fiercely deny. Gershkovich was arrested while reporting for the Journal and has already spent 15 months in a Russian prison. After today’s hearing, court officials said the trial will resume on August 13, 2024.
Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer insight, commentary and analysis on Gershkovich’s case and the trial proceedings in Russia. If you would like to speak with an expert, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
Frank Sesno serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Professor at the GW School of Media and Public Affairs as well as as the Executive Director of the George Washington University Alliance for a Sustainable Future. An Emmy-award winning journalist, Sesno’s diverse journalism career spanning four decades includes more than two decades at CNN as a White House correspondent, anchor, Sunday talk show host, Washington Bureau Chief, and Special Correspondent. While serving in those roles, he covered presidential campaigns and political conventions, superpower summits, arms negotiations, conflicts in the Middle East and Latin America, and major historical events such as the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the 9/11 terror attacks and Barack Obama’s historic inauguration as America’s first Black president in 2009.
Thom Shanker is the director of the Project for Media & National Security at the GW School of Media and Public Affairs. He was named director after a nearly quarter-century career with The New York Times, including 13 years as Pentagon correspondent covering the Department of Defense, overseas combat operations and national security policy. Before joining The Times, he was foreign editor of The Chicago Tribune. He spent five years as The Tribune's Moscow correspondent, covering the start of the Gorbachev era to the death of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the communist empire in Eastern Europe. Shanker led a discussion on Gershkovich’s case with the Defense Writers Group a few weeks back.
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