Paul Beckett, an assistant editor at The Wall Street Journal, had a recent, lengthy article in the Columbia Journalism Review giving a behind-the-scenes look at how the paper dealt with one of its journalists, Evan Gershkovich, being held under arrest for 16 months in Russia. The piece has some good insights for crisis communicators.

Gershkovich (pictured) was arrested in March 2023 on suspicion of spying, though it was obvious the Russian government wanted to use him for leverage in a prisoner swap. In his Nov. 13 CJR article, Beckett writes that the situation “thrust the Journal into its greatest crisis since the kidnapping and murder of South Asia bureau chief Daniel Pearl in Pakistan more than two decades before.”

As we’ve noted previously, the paper launched a full-blown crisis-response plan that included tapping its own staff to publicize the issue. Beckett was Washington bureau chief at the time, so was deeply involved. “Since hostages held by hostile governments are now central to U.S. national security policy writ large, part of that effort meant ensuring Gershkovich’s case remained front and center in the minds of U.S. policymakers,” he writes.

Media Outreach

And while the crisis called for a lot of diplomatic contact and government relations, which Beckett discusses, it also involved outreach to media and other audiences to keep the spotlight on the captured journalist’s plight and to help lead to his release.

One question was whether being too vociferous might backfire. A government official advised the Journal to “be loud,” which Beckett says they adopted as their mantra (though they were quieter when negotiations were at a sensitive phase). That’s a common decision to make at the onset of a crisis: how forceful the response should be.

Another standard crisis strategy is to fight back with facts. Here, Beckett says the team had to make the case that Gershkovich wasn’t a spy. It repeated this in many of the stories the Journal did and in social media (though Beckett discusses the separation of the editorial and PR efforts). It also pressed the point with other journalists and organizations.

‘Wrongfully Detained’

It helped that the U.S. State Department designated the reporter as “wrongfully detained” — though Beckett laments it took the government almost two weeks to do so, “an eternity in a crisis,” as he correctly puts it.

The Journal team used events such as the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner to spread the word. It made a major push on the 250th day of Gershkovich’s detainment. Especially in a long-running crisis (litigation comes to mind), tapping such events and milestones where journalists’ interest will be piqued is a wise move.

In July this year, after a show trial, Gershkovich was convicted of spying and espionage. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Yet, less than two weeks later, on Aug. 1, he was released in a prisoner swap.

Photo Credit: WSJ

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