Wall Street Journal DC bureau chief to focus on Gershkovich release

The Wall Street Journal is moving a top Washington editor away from his job leading the D.C. bureau to focus on securing the release of detained reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Paul Beckett, who has led the Journal’s coverage from Washington since the Trump administration, will transition into the new role in the coming weeks, editor Emma Tucker wrote to staff this week in a memo.

Beckett has for months been “tirelessly lobbying for government action” on the Gershkovich case since he was arrested, Tucker wrote.

Gershkovich, a reporter at the Journal, was arrested in Russia on espionage charges in March while on a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, about 1,200 miles east of Moscow.

The U.S. government has said the charges against Gershkovich are baseless and has urged the Russian government to release him to the United States. The reporter lost a second appeal in his case this week, meaning he will be imprisoned until at least Nov. 30.

Tucker took over as the Journal’s top editor earlier this year and has communicated to staffers repeatedly that securing Gershkovich’s release is among her top priorities.