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The release of a man who America said “…should never have been arrested in the first place”, underlines the risks for all journalists, including our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry.
Evan Gershkovich, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), was part of a deal which saw 24 people swapped in the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
He was first arrested and detained on trumped up charges in March 2023 after Russia claimed he had been “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA .
Mr Gershkovich had been accused of seeking details about Uralvagonzavod, a facility that produces and repairs military equipment.
But his employer, and the US Government strongly deny the claims, with Washington designating him wrongfully detained.
“Evan has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place. Journalism is not a crime”, the US State Department’s Matthew Miller has declared.
This assertion emphasises the hazards run by all journalists.
In the past Phil has kept a whirring tape recorder in his bag, gone to the home of a man he was effectively accusing of multiple murder, and had his house wired for intruders with panic buttons in the hall as well as at his bedside.
But sadly Mr Gershkovic is not alone in his plight, and it has been even worse for others.
The investigative reporter, Jeff German, was found stabbed to death at his home, and Robert Telles, was detained by armed police officers, before being prosecuted for the crime.
Mr Telles appeared in front of a judge smirking, according to media reports, as he was told when his next court appearance would be. Mr German was working on a story about Mr Telles the week he was killed, according to his former newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The paper’s editorial cartoonist published an illustrated tribute to Mr German, calling him, “one of the finest investigative reporters in the country. His job was to shine the light on the darkness”.
This is an uncanny echo of the slogan in Welsh and English on The Eye, which Phil edits: “Finding Light in Darkness”.
Mr Telles has said of Mr German in the past “He’s a bully” and “he’s obsessed with me”, which are also identical to phrases which have been hurled at Phil as he has attempted to do his job.
Apparently endorsing what has happened, in April 2023 the annual report from the Council of Europe Platform on media freedom in Europe, showed that physical attacks on journalists increased dramatically over 2021.
Their publication (Defending Press Freedom in Times of Tension and Conflict), revealed that the number of cases involving concern about the safety and physical integrity of journalists jumped by 51 per cent year-on-year, with many of the attacks taking place during public protests.
Over the years we have seen a relentless rise in assaults on journalists, as they have tried to report the truth of events.
From 2016 to the end of 2020, UNESCO recorded 400 killings of journalists, while the global rate of impunity for those doing them is worryingly high: nine times out of 10, the case remains unresolved.
Since 2000, 16 UK journalists (including The Sunday Time’s, US-born Marie Colvin) have been killed in the course of their reporting.
A Marc Winchester said on Twitter/X, in a tweet which has since been deleted: “I’ll whack him (Phil)“, and the definition of the verb ‘to whack’ in the Urban Dictionary is: “to murder someone”.
This was described as a ‘joke’ but was still reported to the police.
His Wikipedia entry
has been vandalised to include the words ‘tool’ and ‘knob head’, and Phil has been compared on Twitter/X (in Welsh) to the comedy broadcaster Alan Partridge.
In the past he has been accused online (incorrectly) of being a “bastard” (many times), an “anti-devolutionist wanker”, “pure scum”, a “liar” (also many times) a “little git”, and (correctly) a “nosey git”, “irritating”, or a “nuisance”. But these remarks come amid many others. Too many, in fact, to mention.
Then there is the extraordinary case of the Welsh former political lobbyist Daran Hill.
After Phil had had the audacity to write a story about a woman, he used Twitter/X to accuse him of being “bitter”, and a “misogynist”.
Phil was forced to take legal action after which a fulsome apology was forthcoming, and Hill has since been sentenced to prison after being exposed as a paedophile.
He was found with 62 indecent images, among them eight in the most serious category after being arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2021.
But unfortunately exposing people like Hill is a difficult task, and figures show that spurious arrests of journalists who try to do these things are increasing, as Mr Gershkovich knows only too well.
While his release is to be celebrated, it should be noted that Vladimir Putin’s regime is still holding hundreds of prisoners of conscience.
They include Ivan Safronov, a journalist imprisoned for writing about corruption.
Journalists look into these matters at their peril…
Some of the stories Phil has covered over the years (when risks were ignored), as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
