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Journalist’s Trade

June 15, 2003.

Learning To Be a Medical Journalist

‘if you already are a skilled reporter and writer, the transition to medical journalism should be relatively easy.’, thomas linden, tagged with.

T alk to 10 medical journalists and you’ll find 10 different career paths. Common to most medical reporters is a love for writing and a deep interest in medicine and science. But how does someone prepare for a career in this field, a hybrid of science and art?

It’s really the same problem that the late and great physician essayist Lewis Thomas wrote about in 1978 for The New England Journal of Medicine. Only then Thomas was talking about pre-medical students. As he noted in his essay, “How to Fix the Premedical Curriculum,” the problem with many pre-medical students (and, dare I say, many doctors) is that they don’t study enough literature, language and history. Thomas’s proposal was to study classical Greek as “the centerpiece of undergraduate education …. The capacity to read Homer’s language closely enough to sense the terrifying poetry in some of the lines could serve as a shrewd test for the qualities of mind and character needed in a physician.”

Now I’m not proposing that aspiring medical journalists study Homer, although a little poetry can go a long way in a story. The theme here is that the best way to prepare for a career in medical journalism (as Thomas proposed for medicine) is to gain an appreciation for the poetry of language. So if you are a college student and want to be a medical journalist, take courses in the humanities (English, literature, foreign languages, history) as well as basic science courses in biology, chemistry, genetics and physics. The best preparation to be a journalist—any kind of journalist—is to read voraciously and write prolifically. Subscribe to at least one newspaper (in addition to the five you follow on the Web). Read a variety of magazines. If you don’t have a pile of reading material at your bedside, ask yourself if you really want to be a journalist. Oh yes, and read books. Books about medicine and science are good, but don’t limit yourself to that field. Finally, be sure you have an English and a medical dictionary (I prefer Stedman’s) handy at all times. Words are the clay you work with, so choose them carefully.

Beyond words lies knowledge. An understanding of medical science is what separates medical journalists from general assignment reporters. “At its best, journalism mediates between the worlds of expertise and general knowledge,” Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, wrote in his 2003 Journalism Task Force Statement. “To do that well—to write for the present and to weave in broader meaning—is remarkably difficult. A necessary element is substantive knowledge, the kind of knowledge you cannot just pick up in the course of doing a story.”

What Bollinger is saying—and I agree—is that to really own the medical beat, you need to know the subject matter. You don’t need to be a scientist or a doctor, but you do need to understand how scientists think and be able to translate their jargon and their ideas into simple English.

So let’s jump ahead. You’re already a journalist, maybe a general assignment reporter with an interest in medicine and science. Or a health care provider who feels your creative energies are stifled by the tedium of daily practice. In other words, you’re thinking about becoming a medical journalist.

The first question you might ask is whether to pursue post-graduate medical journalism training. The answer is, “It depends.” If you’re a general assignment reporter with no background in the sciences, then a master’s course of study in medical journalism might make sense. If you’re in the health care field with no prior journalistic experience, then you’ll need to learn how to write for the popular media. The advantage here lies with the journalist. If you already are a skilled reporter and writer, the transition to medical journalism should be relatively easy. Enrolling in a medical journalism program makes sense if you want to use the opportunity to deepen your background in health sciences and increase your knowledge of public health.

If you’re already in the health care field and want to retool, that’s a lot more difficult, especially if you’ve had limited writing or reporting experience. If you’re a doctor or nurse and fantasize about becoming the next Larry Altman or Atul Gawande, then start writing. Take a journalism course at your local community college or university. Submit articles to your local newspaper. Or apprentice yourself to a producer or reporter at your local television station. The bottom line is that if you’re a health care provider with little reporting experience then you must develop your journalistic skills. There’s no substitute for hours spent in the field gathering information, interviewing sources, and writing good copy.

Medical Journalism Programs

RELATED ARTICLE “Medical Journalism Training” For some individuals, matriculating at a graduate-level medical journalism program is the way to go. In our master’s program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about half of the entering students have worked as a full-time newspaper reporter or freelance magazine writer for at least one or more years after college. A few students have entered without formal journalism education or reporting experience. About half of the students have majored in a science-related field. Interestingly, I have received several inquiries from physicians who want to either switch careers or pursue a combined career in medicine and medical journalism. So far, none has applied.

If you have some writing experience and decide to pursue a post-graduate program, what should you look for? First, make sure the people who will teach you have worked in the field. Second, talk to enrolled students and ask them what they’re learning. If they don’t mention “writing” in the first few sentences, then look elsewhere. As for the course curriculum, make sure you’ll have lots of writing practice with teachers who are willing and available to critique your work. Be sure courses train you to write for a variety of media including print, broadcast (television and radio), and the Web. Inquire whether the program offers courses in public health (including epidemiology) so you’ll know how to interpret and evaluate medical studies and put research findings in context. Check out the syllabi for the medical journalism courses offered. Make sure you’ll read some of the best writers in the field—Oliver Sacks, Lewis Thomas, Randy Shilts, Jon Franklin, and Laurie Garrett, to name just a few.

If you’re broadcast-oriented, make sure your program offers courses in print journalism. If you’re print-oriented, be sure to take a broadcast course. Some of my first-year master’s students in medical television reporting were sure they wanted to be print journalists until they produced their first medical television report. Then, some of them realized the power of the broadcast media to put a “face” on their medical stories. We’re all aware of the limitations of the 90-second television package replete with eight-second sound bites and simple story lines, but don’t underestimate the poetry of good television storytelling. You can have enormous impact. A survey conducted in 1997 by Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc. for the National Health Council and PBS’s “HealthWeek” showed that Americans rate television ahead of health professionals, magazines, journals and newspapers as their principal source for most medical information.

Lastly, ask yourself if you really want to embrace the life of a medical reporter. There will be hours spent analyzing generally poorly written medical journal articles. You will place repeated phone calls to health professionals who often don’t want to talk to you. There will be a lack of appreciation from newspaper editors and television news directors and not enough column inches or broadcast airtime to adequately tell your story. And the pay will be not at all commensurate with your skills or level of education.

If none of the above deters you, if you find science and medicine inherently fascinating, and if you write just for the joy of turning a good phrase, then medical journalism is for you.

Thomas Linden, M.D., is director of the Medical Journalism Program and Glaxo Wellcome Distinguished Professor of Medical Journalism at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Linden was the first health and science correspondent for CNBC, medical reporter for KRON-TV in San Francisco, medical editor of Fox 11 News in Los Angeles, and co-anchor of “Physicians’ Journal Update” on Lifetime Medical Television.

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General Assignment Reporter Salary in the United States

General assignment reporter salary.

How much does a General Assignment Reporter make in the United States? The average General Assignment Reporter salary in the United States is $57,400 as of April 24, 2024, but the range typically falls between $51,800 and $66,300 . Salary ranges can vary widely depending on many important factors, including education , certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession. With more online, real-time compensation data than any other website, Salary.com helps you determine your exact pay target.

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The General Assignment Reporter researches a variety of news stories through interviews, observation, and library and/or online resources. Develops, investigates, and writes a variety of news stories. Being a General Assignment Reporter organizes the facts and writes the story consistent with an agreed-upon style or standard. Determines tone and intended audience of story. In addition, General Assignment Reporter validates news story leads. May require a bachelor's degree. Typically reports to a manager. Being a General Assignment Reporter occasionally directed in several aspects of the work. Gaining exposure to some of the complex tasks within the job function. Working as a General Assignment Reporter typically requires 2-4 years of related experience. (Copyright 2024 Salary.com)

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General Assignment Reporter (Sun – Thurs)

Employment Requirement: Employment Requirement: Colorado Public Radio (CPR) strives to maintain a workplace that keeps employees mentally and physically safe. CPR requires employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless a medical or religious accommodation is timely requested and approved. All candidates offered a position at Colorado Public Radio will be required to comply with the COVID vaccine mandate and procedures prior to their first day of employment. 

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• Creative • Curious • Ethical • Inclusive • Respectful

At Colorado Public Radio we are committed to cultivating and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace that helps us represent the voices of the communities within Colorado. We highly encourage individuals with unique contributions such as ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity, nation of origin, age, language, veteran status, color, religion, disability and sexual orientation to apply to our openings. CPR is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone to our team.

Colorado Public Radio (CPR) is seeking a General Assignment Reporter / Backup Host to work Sundays through Thursdays.

About the Position:

The General Assignment Reporter / Backup Host publishes daily digital stories and picks up digital and on-air coverage as needed. Essential to the CPR News goals of being accurate, present and urgent, you will file daily newscast spots, daily digital stories and longer term features. You will mostly be able to develop your own areas of focus alongside your editor,  and as part of that work, will often partner or collaborate with others in the newsroom. You will cover Colorado in ways that reflect and represent the state’s diversity, including a focus on underrepresented communities and regions. 

The new hire is expected to reside in the Denver Metro upon starting - this is not a remote position. There is day-to-day schedule and worksite flexibility as needed, however, please be aware that this position’s required schedule is Sunday - Thursday, 9 am to 5 pm.

You are a responsive, adaptable and reliable reporter, ignited by curiosity and interested in daily news. You have a fast metabolism for producing stories that reflect what’s happening, as well as a desire to create enterprise stories that can get conversations going about important Colorado issues. You’re excited about the general assignment beat because you have a variety of interests and see yourself as a lifelong learner. You’re committed to diversity and inclusivity in sourcing and story choice and are able to develop a wide variety of sources from diverse communities. You’re a creative storyteller. You’re also a collaborator who likes to work with other reporters on projects to better your own work. You’re interested in opportunities to develop new storytelling platforms skills (e.g. hosting skills and additional audio skills). 

Minimum Qualifications:

• A minimum of 3 years of experience working for a daily publication or in a newsroom is required (experience in local news, particularly with a digital news site, is preferred). 
• Knowledge of the fundamentals of fair and accurate reporting is required.
• Ability to generate great story ideas that speak to varied, real, human experiences is required (a demonstrated experience earning trust and reporting on issues impacting underserved communities is preferred).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a strong attention to detail is required. 
• Ability to work collaboratively, meet deadlines, switch between tasks as necessary and work in a fast-paced, digital environment is required. 
• Audio editing skills (particularly experience with Adobe Audition) are required. 
• A valid driver’s license and clean driving record is required as this role needs access to reliable transportation to respond with urgency to news events. Newsroom vehicles will sometimes be available for your use.
• Ability to work a non-standard schedule; Sun - Thurs, 9 am - 5 pm

Education Equivalency:

• High School or GED degree required. Relevant Associates or Bachelors degree may replace some of the years of experience required. 

Don't meet every single requirement? Research has shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Colorado Public Radio, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, equitable and authentic workplace. If you're excited about this role, but your past experience doesn't perfectly align with every qualification in the job posting, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles with us.

Colorado Public Radio is proud to offer a comprehensive benefits package that reflects our culture of caring. Our employees have access to: 100 percent employer paid individual health, dental, life, and disability coverage; an outstanding paid family medical leave policy plus paid holidays and a very generous sick, vacation, and personal time off plan; voluntary offerings such as vision; a retirement plan with no waiting or vesting periods; flexible schedules; engagement and development opportunities; and a casual atmosphere.

Position Information:

Position Type: Full-time

Hiring Range: Grade 17 - $61,100 - $76,300

Structure Title: Reporter, News Delivery

Starting Pay: based on education and experience.

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Click here to apply (https://secure.entertimeonline.com/ta/MOPBC0031.careers?ApplyToJob=637705288) to apply. Please upload a resume and answer all application questions.

Incomplete Applications will not be considered.

Application Deadline: June 5th, 2024

At Colorado Public Radio we are committed to cultivating and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace that helps us represent the voices of the communities within Colorado. We highly encourage candidates with unique contributions such as ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity, nation of origin, age, language, veteran status, color, religion, disability and sexual orientation to apply to our openings. CPR is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone to our team. If you need reasonable accommodation at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.

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General assignment reporters: how to become one.

If you were to ask a group of general assignment reporters about how they arrived at their current job, there's a good chance you would get several different answers about the paths and steps that each person took.

That said, there are still ways that you can develop a baseline understanding of the preparation that is necessary to become one.

The Best Adult Colleges and Careers Guide has gathered data to provide you with insight into the type of education that's commonly required for general assignment reporters to land a job. This page contains information, sourced from real job postings, that describes the experience levels and specific skills that employers of general assignment reporters expect candidates to have. In the end, this information will help you create an education or professional development plan that aligns with your career aspirations.

Keep reading to learn more about career steps for general assignment reporters.

What Education & Experience is Needed for General Assignment Reporters?

Do general assignment reporters need a degree? What kind of experience do general assignment reporters typically need? Thanks to data sourced from Lightcast™ from real job postings, we can get some clarity on those questions, as well as the level of education that is commonly required for general assignment reporters to secure jobs.

Education Level Required in Job Postings for General Assignment Reporters

Jobs postings for general assignment reporters by education.

• Bachelor's degree: 14,166 (53%)
• No Education Listed: 10,021 (37%)
• High School or GED: 1,430 (5%)
• Master's degree: 1,110 (4%)
• Ph.D. or professional degree: 102 (0%)

A bachelor's degree is the level of education sought the most by employers of general assignment reporters. According to job data, a bachelor's degree was required for 53% of positions. In 37% of job listings no education level was listed and in 5% of postings a High School diploma or GED was required.

Experience Level Required in Job Postings for General Assignment Reporters

Jobs postings for general assignment reporters by experience.

• 0-1 Years: 3,165 (22%)
• 2-3 Years: 8,051 (56%)
• 4-6 Years: 2,760 (19%)
• 7-9 Years: 195 (1%)
• 10+ Years: 188 (1%)

While the amount of required experience will vary based on the responsibility and seniority of the position, an aggregate view of job posting data can help paint a picture of the experience level sought for most job openings for general assignment reporters. In 56% of job postings for General Assignment Reporters, employers were looking for candidates with 2-3 years of experience. In 22% of listings employers were looking for candidates with 0-1 years of experience, while 4-6 years of experience was sought in 19% of job postings for general assignment reporters.

What Kind of Degree Do General Assignment Reporters Need?

So far this page has provided detail into the level of education and the amount of experience required in job openings for general assignment reporters, but what type of education or degree will help prepare you for a career in the field?

According to occupational data obtained through Lightcast,™ there are 23 key academic programs that can help prepare prospective general assignment reporters, and in 2021 a total of 147,385 of those programs were completed at institutions in the United States.

Check out the information below to learn more about the specific programs that should be considered by prospective general assignment reporters.

Top Degree Programs for General Assignment Reporters

Top 5 degree programs for general assignment reporters (2021), top online college for working adults.

Franklin University is a top choice for adults who need to balance school with busy lives. Founded in 1902 in Columbus, Ohio, Franklin's main focus has been serving adult students and tailoring education to fit their needs. Nonprofit and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org/800.621.7440), Franklin offers more than 50 affordable bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs — all available 100% online.

Degree Options for General Assignment Reporters

Learn to craft clear and effective messages while adding new media communication methods to your professional toolkit.

• Class Type: 100% online
• Cost Per Credit: $398

What Skills Do General Assignment Reporters Need?

Education and experience have been covered, so what are the specific skills and traits needed by general assignment reporters to secure a job?

A good way to understand this is to examine actual job postings for skills commonly sought by employers. Continue reading for a breakdown of specialized skills found in job postings for general assignment reporters, as well as common skills that can help you thrive in the workplace.

In-Demand Skills for Today's General Assignment Reporters Based on 25,610 job postings

Top 5 specialized skills for general assignment reporters, top 5 common skills for general assignment reporters.

Based on 25,610 job postings related to general assignment reporters, journalism was the top specialized skill sought by employers, with 53% of all postings looking for that skillset. Skills for news stories, social media, storytelling, content creation and news anchoring were also highly sought.

As for common skills, writing was the most desired skill found in job postings for general assignment reporters, followed by communications, editing, research, ability to meet deadlines and english language.

Ready to dig deeper into career information about general assignment reporters? Visit our other pages focused on salary and education for general assignment reporters.

All Occupations

The Best Adult Colleges and Careers Guide has compiled data for dozens of in-demand jobs. Explore our full catalog of occupation data by visiting the link below.

About This Data

The Best Adult Colleges & Careers Guide is sponsored by Franklin University, a nonprofit, accredited institution. The guide uses 2022 information from Lightcast™ to provide data on dozens of in-demand jobs.

Job titles used in government data may differ slightly from the job title on this page, so the closest matching government job classification may be used as a proxy to present data here.

On this page, data corresponds to the following occupational classification: News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists.

Copyright 2024 Franklin University

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Why Russia has kept a Wall Street Journal reporter in jail for a year — and counting

Evan Gershkovich’s case isn’t just about press freedom. It’s about geopolitics.

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Evan Gershkovich , the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia on charges of spying, just had three months added to his jail time — and he hasn’t even gone to trial yet.

It’s been a year since Gershkovich, who had covered the country for five years at that point, was arrested by Russian security forces. He was on assignment in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains nearly 900 miles east of the Journal’s Moscow bureau. And because of Russia’s opaque and autocratic justice system, the trial — when it comes — will likely be conducted in secret. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in a Russian penal colony.

The US government says he is “ wrongfully detained ” — a designation the US applies to citizens detained overseas on what it considers to be unfounded charges and whose release it is actively working to secure.

While foreign reporters have been kicked out of the country since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine , and many Russian reporters have been detained , forced to flee the country , or killed while President Vladimir Putin has been in power, Gershkovich’s case is somewhat unusual in that he’s an American reporter accused of espionage. He’s the first foreign reporter detained on espionage charges since the Cold War, when US News & World Report’s Nicholas Daniloff was arrested in 1986 .

Daniloff, like Gershkovich, is the child of Russian immigrants; like Gershkovich, he was also not a spy, though he did come into Soviet intelligence that he handed over to the CIA . Gershkovich’s case is emblematic of a few trends in Russia right now — not just the destruction of press freedom there, but also the use of detainees as a bargaining chip between Russia and the US.

Gershkovich’s time in Russia parallels increasing repression

Gershkovich’s parents fled the country during a wave of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and ’80s, according to the Journal. Though he grew up in the US, he spoke Russian at home, and his childhood was tinged with Russian superstitions and cultural specificities . He moved to Russia in 2017, where he worked first for the Moscow Times and then for Agence France-Presse.

As a reporter for the Journal, where he was hired in 2022, Gershkovich covered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its economy, and the internal politics of the Kremlin. But criticizing or truthfully reporting about the war in Ukraine became increasingly dangerous due to the Kremlin’s draconian laws against what it refers to as fake news and against disparaging the war effort. That environment forced many Western journalists and outlets covering Russia out of the country. (The BBC’s Russia bureau, for instance, is now located in Riga, Latvia, and the Russian outlet TV Rain has moved to Amsterdam.)

Russian journalists have suffered even worse for years . “Since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine, between 1,500 to 1,800 Russian journalists were forced into exile,” according to an investigation by a journalist support fund created by Reporters Without Borders.

Even though Gershkovich, according to the Journal, had the appropriate accreditation from the Russian foreign ministry to work as a reporter in the country, the Federal Security Bureau (FSB, Russia’s successor to its notorious KGB spy agency) had previously followed him on other assignments , filming him while he worked and discouraging sources from talking to him.

The Kremlin and FSB have claimed — without clear evidence — that Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Gershkovich’s family, his employer, and the Biden administration have all denied that he was working as a spy, which is not an uncommon accusation against foreign journalists working in authoritarian countries.

He has been denied access to the attorney the Journal hired for him and has gone through at least a dozen secret pre-trial hearings over the past year in which he has appealed for his release. Those appeals ended in an extension of his pre-trial sentence .

Russia has used prisoners as political pawns before

Gershkovich fits into a larger trend of the Kremlin using US citizens as pawns to achieve political goals or express displeasure — rather than using diplomatic channels.

A week before Gerskovich’s arrest, the Justice Department charged Russian citizen Sergey Cherkasov with several crimes including visa fraud, wire fraud, and acting as an agent of a foreign power. Though it’s not clear the two cases are linked, Gershkovich’s arrest could have been in retaliation for Cherkasov’s indictment.

There’s another American reporter currently detained in Russia: Alsu Kurmasheva , a reporter for Radio Free Europe, has been detained in Russia since June for allegedly failing to register her US citizenship while on a personal visit to see her sick grandmother.

You might also remember how star basketball player Brittney Griner was arrested in a Moscow airport in February 2022 for carrying a gram of hashish oil in her luggage. Her saga — from her sham trials to her nine-year sentence to her transfer to a penal colony in Russia’s Mordovia region — merited significant attention in the US press and from the Biden administration.

Griner was released in December 2022 in exchange for Victor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker nicknamed the “ merchant of death ” for his role in funneling arms to the Taliban and al-Qaeda .

“The cases are often resolved through this kind of swap, and they take a long time, so it can feel hopeless when you haven’t heard any news for weeks and months and you know an American is suffering in a foreign country,” Danielle Gilbert, a professor at Northwestern University who studies hostage negotiations, told Vox in 2022 .

Putin told American media personality Tucker Carlson in February that he would be open to swapping Gershkovich for a Russian currently in prison abroad; that is speculated to be Vadim Krasikov , who is serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of a Georgian man who was living in Berlin. But releasing Krasikov is up to Germany, not the US.

Gershkovich was apparently part of a prisoner swap deal that included Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny , who died in February while in detention in Siberia, as well as Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has been detained on espionage charges since 2018. That deal could have seen the three traded for Krasikov, but the deal was called off upon Navalny’s death at the hands of the Russian state.

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Russia detains a Wall Street Journal reporter, accusing him of espionage.

The newspaper said it “vehemently denies the allegations” against Evan Gershkovich, an American, and the White House called his detention “unacceptable.”

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By Daniel Victor and Michael M. Grynbaum

• March 30, 2023

The Russian authorities said on Thursday that they had detained an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal and accused him of espionage, marking a new escalation in Moscow’s tensions with the United States and with foreign media organizations since its invasion of Ukraine.

The journalist, Evan Gershkovich , a correspondent based in Moscow, is believed to be the first American reporter to be held as an accused spy in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. His detention comes as relations between Russia and the United States continue to deteriorate, with Washington leading a coalition of nations supporting Ukraine’s military defense and pushing for Moscow’s further diplomatic and economic isolation.

The Russian Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., said in a statement that Mr. Gershkovich “is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government” and had been detained in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains. Hours later, the Kremlin endorsed Mr. Gershkovich’s arrest.

“We’re not talking about suspicions,” Dmitri S. Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, said, adding, “He was caught red-handed.” Mr. Peskov said he could not provide further details.

The detention is an ominous sign for the rights of foreign journalists based in Russia. The Wall Street Journal strongly rejected the accusations against Mr. Gershkovich and said it would seek his immediate release. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family,” the newspaper said in a statement.

President Biden was briefed on Mr. Gershkovich’s detention and the secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, said he was “deeply concerned.” State Department officials had contacted Russian authorities to secure access to the reporter and check on his welfare.

“The targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “We condemn the detention of Mr. Gershkovich in the strongest terms. We also condemn the Russian government’s continued targeting and repression of journalists and freedom of the press.”

Mr. Gershkovich, 31, grew up in Princeton, N.J., as a child of Soviet émigrés . He has worked for The Journal in Moscow since January 2022 ; previously, he reported in Russia for Agence France-Presse and for The Moscow Times. Before that, he was a news assistant for The New York Times, based in New York.

No Western journalist has been tried on espionage charges in Russia in recent years. But in March 2022, many foreign news organizations, including The Times , temporarily removed their reporters from the country after harsh new laws virtually outlawed some forms of independent reporting after the invasion of Ukraine.

Since then, correspondents — including Mr. Gershkovich — continued to receive accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry and had generally been able to operate freely.

But American journalists, in particular, have been concerned about a situation like the one now unfolding with Mr. Gershkovich: that Russian authorities might detain a correspondent from a U.S.-based organization amid the larger tensions between the two countries. In some past espionage cases, Russia has detained foreigners to instigate prisoner exchanges with the West.

“Until today, there was a hope among foreign correspondents working in Russia that these crackdowns on independent reporting would not extend to them,” said Gulnoza Said, a coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, which monitors press freedoms abroad. “But with these very serious charges, it is clear that any foreign correspondent could be a victim.”

“The situation was frozen,” she added, “and now it got worse. Everybody working in Russia knew it may happen, but everyone was hoping it would not.”

Mr. Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison under Russia’s criminal code. Espionage trials in the country can take months and are typically conducted in secret. Acquittals are virtually unheard-of.

Photos and video appeared to show Mr. Gershkovich exiting a court building in Moscow on Thursday afternoon with a jacket hood over his head. He pleaded not guilty to espionage charges, the Russian state news agency Tass reported .

The detention of Brittney Griner , an American W.N.B.A. star, on a minor drug charge in February 2022 set off a monthslong negotiation between Moscow and Washington for her release, culminating in a prisoner swap that freed a Russian arms dealer from U.S. custody. In 2019, in exchange for two convicted Russian spies in Lithuania, Moscow freed a Norwegian man who had been held for 23 months on accusations of espionage.

American officials have also pushed for the release of Paul Whelan , a former Marine who has been held in Russia since 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for what the United States considers sham espionage charges.

On Thursday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei A. Ryabkov, signaled that it was too soon to discuss a swap for Mr. Gershkovich. “Certain exchanges that took place in the past took place for people who were already serving sentences,” Mr. Ryabkov told reporters, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, adding, “Let’s see how this story will develop.”

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center who is based in France, said that Mr. Gershkovich’s reporting on the Russian military was what had most likely attracted the attention of the Russian security services, adding that they probably saw an opportunity to gain a new negotiating chip.

“I think that it will attract a lot of attention politically in the United States so that the authorities will have to react,” she said, adding that his arrest “puts the Kremlin in an advantageous position.”

A spokeswoman for The New York Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said on Thursday that Mr. Gershkovich’s coverage of Russia “has been unfailingly fair and accurate.”

“As we have seen too often, the arrest of journalists anywhere in the world deprives the public of news that is essential to all of us,” Ms. Rhoades Ha said. She said The Times currently had no reporters in Russia.

Mr. Peskov, the spokesman for Mr. Putin, said that the Kremlin was not planning to shut down The Journal’s Moscow bureau. “Those that are carrying out normal journalistic activity, if they have a valid accreditation, then of course they will continue to work,” he said.

The Journal recently named a new top editor, Emma Tucker . In 2014, as deputy editor of The Times of London, Ms. Tucker was closely involved in an episode involving two correspondents who had been kidnapped and detained in Syria. One of the journalists, Anthony Loyd, was shot twice in the leg, and the other, the photographer Jack Hill, was beaten up before the men were able to escape.

“We are very concerned for the safety of Evan and will keep you informed of the situation,” Ms. Tucker wrote in a Thursday memo to her staff.

Victoria Kim and Katie Rogers contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this article misstated the month of Brittney Griner’s detention by Russia. It was February 2022, not March 2022.

How we handle corrections

Daniel Victor is a general assignment reporter based in London after stints in Hong Kong and New York. He joined The Times in 2012. More about Daniel Victor

Michael M. Grynbaum is a media correspondent covering the intersection of business, culture and politics. More about Michael M. Grynbaum

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It may be months before U.S. 50 is open to even a single lane of traffic over Blue Mesa

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Repairs to the U.S. 50 bridge over the Blue Mesa reservoir could take anywhere from four weeks to several months after crews finish inspecting for additional cracks, state transportation leaders said Tuesday.

The Colorado Department of Transportation is considering four repair options, all of which depend on the extent of damage to Middle Bridge, a 1,500-foot-long bridge carrying U.S. 50 traffic over the lake, officials said during a community meeting in Gunnison. 

Since the sudden April 18 shutdown of the bridge, which has complicated critical travel between Montrose and Gunnison , crews have identified 118 areas where ultrasonic testing needs to be conducted to determine the integrity of the steel bridge, said Jason Smith, a regional transportation director for CDOT.

Crews are about 40% complete with its inspection, officials said, calling it a “slow process” that involves scraping off the paint, grinding down or sandblasting the area and conducting ultrasonic testing on each location. Inspectors did not find any “visual issues” with the shorter bridge 2 miles to the west, made of the same type of steel, but will conduct further inspection in the future. 

The ultrasonic testing results are then sent to experts to review and look for “anomalies,” Smith said. So far, 40 locations have been scanned and 25 anomalies have been found, he said. 

Officials said they hope to get enough repairs completed before Halloween, when inclement weather would likely complicate or stop the work. The bridge is made of type T-1 steel, which is three times the strength of normal steel and makes repairs more challenging, Smith said.  

The best repair option for the bridge will depend where and on how severe the anomalies are, Smith said.

The best-case scenario — and quickest option — for repairs involves attaching 12-foot plates in areas along the bridge where anomalies are found, said Jason Proskovec, a project manager with Kiewit Engineering Co., a company that has completed major infrastructure projects in Colorado, including the rebuilding of U.S. 34 in Big Thompson Canyon after the 2013 floods.

The worst-case scenario would be a complete replacement of the bridge’s three spans, which could require construction crews and engineers to work from man lifts and cranes in the water to make the repairs.

“I think right now it’s low probability, but it is still a possibility,” Proskovec said. Kiewit has already obtained the first 88 tons of steel needed for repairs, he said.

Keith Stefanik, a CDOT engineer, said he did not have an exact date as to when a single lane of traffic may be allowed over the bridge.

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“Our short-term goal is to make enough repairs to get this open to some type of interval traffic. We’re not sure on that perspective yet, but we will weigh all the options on how we can repair it with traffic intermittently closed or how we can repair it with traffic closed at all times of the night,” Stefanik said. 

“We need to know exactly what’s failing, what’s good, where the defects are, so that we can shore up this bridge and make the proper design decisions,” he said. “We will hit the ground running and make sure that we try to reduce the closure period of this bridge to the shortest range possible.”

State officials have discussed temporary options to get travelers from one side of the reservoir to another in the meantime — from ferries to floating bridges — but said their attention is focused on repairing the bridge. 

The bridge closure has complicated critical commutes along the vital route that connects Gunnison to Montrose. Some students took a 30-minute ferry ride across the choppy waters to get to school. Gunnison Valley Hospital shifted to disaster management mode to figure out how to deliver critical care to kidney and cancer patients.

“The group’s consensus has been that focusing our immediate efforts on doing everything we can to fortify local groups is the best bang for our buck in getting more people to and from,” CDOT Director Shoshanna Lew said. 

Starting Thursday, trailers and commercial vehicles under the Colorado legal maximum weight (85,000 GWR) will be allowed to join other travelers along the County Road 26 detour route. A pilot car will continue to guide traffic along the rugged, dirt road four times a day to local travel . 

CDOT crews have spread thousands of pounds of gravel along the high mountain road that typically has between 100 to 125 cars during its peak traffic periods. Since opening the 87-mile detour route, traffic along the road has increased 40 fold, officials said. 

Crews continue to work 10- to 12-hour days to clear Kebler Pass when weather permits, officials said. On Tuesday, the pass got 6 inches of snow and strong wind downed 16 trees across the road. 

A date for reopening the pass is still unknown. 

No oversize loads or hazardous materials will be allowed on County Road 26, also known as the Lake City cutoff. Transportation officials are advising prohibited vehicles to use two alternative routes — Interstate 70 to the north or U.S. 160 to the south. 

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Olivia Prentzel General Assignment Reporter

Olivia Prentzel covers breaking news and a wide range of other important issues impacting Coloradans for The Colorado Sun, where she has been a staff writer since 2021. At The Sun, she has covered wildfires, criminal justice, the environment,... More by Olivia Prentzel

Russian Court Extends WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich’s Detention

A Russian court extended the detention of Evan Gershkovich by three months, almost a year to the day since The Wall Street Journal reporter became the first U.S. journalist to be detained there on an allegation of espionage since the end of the Cold War.

The 32-year-old reporter, whom the U.S. government deems wrongfully detained, has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison since March 29 last year, on an allegation that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

In a closed hearing at the Moscow City Court, a judge granted the request of investigators from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, that Gershkovich remain behind bars awaiting trial until June 30.

Russian law allows investigators up to a year in criminal cases deemed particularly complex to prepare for a trial, but grants further extensions in exceptional circumstances.

Tuesday’s ruling, the fifth extension of Gershkovich’s detention, comes ahead of the one-year mark of his detainment on Friday and amid efforts by the Biden administration to secure his release. The U.S. government says Gershkovich has never worked for it and isn’t a spy.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said outside the court that Gershkovich remained remarkably resilient but his continued detention was “particularly painful” given that this week marks a year since he was detained.

“The accusations against Evan are categorically untrue. They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction,” she said.

Gershkovich’s detention is “not about evidence, due process or rule of law,” Tracy said. It is about “using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends,” she added.

The Wall Street Journal said in a statement, “It’s a ruling that ensures Evan will sit in a Russian prison well past one year. It was also Evan’s 12th court appearance, baseless proceedings that falsely portray him as something other than what he is—a journalist who was doing his job. He should never have been detained. Journalism is not a crime, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”

Russian investigators haven’t publicly presented evidence for their allegation against Gershkovich. Moscow has said it is acting in accordance with its laws. Most of the court proceedings have taken place behind closed doors.

Last week, Jason Conti, general counsel for Journal publisher Dow Jones, told a panel hosted by the National Press Club in Washington that the U.S. government should consider immediate consequences, including sanctions, against authoritarian countries that wrongfully detain reporters.

The Biden administration sanctioned the FSB about a month after Gershkovich, who was accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, was detained during a reporting trip in Russia. The sanctions were in the works before Gershkovich’s detention, senior administration officials said at the time, with President Biden saying the move would apply further pressure on Russia.

Gershkovich’s designation as wrongfully detained commits the U.S. government to work to secure his release. He and Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate-security executive serving a 16-year sentence for espionage in a Russian penal colony, are the only Americans categorized by the State Department as wrongfully detained in Russia.

President Vladimir Putin, who was re-elected for a fifth term earlier this month, indicated in February that he would be open to a prisoner swap for Gershkovich if Moscow and Washington reached an agreement. Putin declined to give a time frame for a deal and didn’t specify who Moscow was demanding in return for Gershkovich. But he made clear reference to Russian operative Vadim Krasikov, now serving a life sentence in Germany for gunning down a Chechen émigré in a Berlin park in 2019.

Days after Putin’s remarks, associates of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony in February, said a proposal to trade him and two unnamed American citizens held by Moscow for Krasikov had been under discussion.

Putin told a news conference earlier this month that, days before Navalny died, he had agreed to exchange him with prisoners in the West, on the condition that the opposition politician—the Kremlin leader’s most potent critic—never return to Russia.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan later told reporters that U.S. officials had never heard a Russian official “raise Navalny as part of a prisoner swap” in any conversations between the two sides. Relations between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated starkly since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Responding to a request for comment on the progress of negotiations on a possible exchange for Gershkovich, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that communication between Moscow and Washington is ongoing, but didn’t provide further details.

“There are certain contacts in this area. But they must be carried out in silence,” Peskov said in an email to The Wall Street Journal. ”Our counterparts know our position well.”

Sullivan said there are continuous efforts to secure the release of both Gershkovich and Whelan and the U.S. government had “not slackened one inch in our zeal to get the two of them out,” he said.

The White House has also called for the release of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was taken into custody in October and later charged with failing to register as a foreign agent. She was subsequently also charged with spreading false information about Russia’s military. State Department officials have said Russia has brought baseless charges against Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen. The U.S. is closely monitoring her detention but hasn’t reached a decision on whether she is being wrongfully detained, a State Department official said.

The Moscow City Court has rejected several appeals by Gershkovich’s lawyers, at least one of which requested that he be transferred to house arrest, agree to constraints on his movements or be granted bail. The reporter’s initial pretrial detention was scheduled to expire on May 29 last year.

Under Russian law, investigators and prosecutors have wide latitude to request further extensions of detention before the case goes to trial. A conviction for espionage can carry a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. It is rare for a court to acquit a defendant in such cases.

Write to Ann M. Simmons at [email protected]

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Britain to expel Russian attaché in response to ‘reckless and dangerous activities’ by Moscow

In this photo released by Russian Embassy in London/Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Colonel Maxim Elovik, Russia’s military attaché to the United Kingdom and Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrey Kelin, right, attend a laying wreaths ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe, at the Soviet war memorial in London, Britain, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Britain says it is expelling the attaché after accusing him of being a spy. The move announced Wednesday was one of several measures taken by the U.K. against Moscow over what it said were malicious activities. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)

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LONDON (AP) — Britain will expel Russia’s defense attaché over spying allegations as part of several measures the government announced Wednesday to target Moscow’s intelligence gathering operations in the U.K.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said the measures were aimed at what he called the “reckless and dangerous activities of the Russian government across Europe.”

The latest round of measures will boot the attaché, Maxim Elovik, a Russian colonel who the government termed an “undeclared military intelligence officer.” It will also rescind the diplomatic status of several Russian-owned properties because they are believed to have been used for intelligence purposes, and impose new restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas and visits.

“In the coming days we should expect accusations of Russophobia, conspiracy theories and hysteria from the Russian government,” Cleverly said in Parliament. “This is not new and the British people and the British government will not fall for it, and will not be taken for fools by Putin’s bots, trolls and lackeys.”

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, told The Associated Press that “Russia will respond in kind.”

The U.K. has had an uneasy relationship with Russia for years, accusing its agents of targeted killings and espionage, including cyberattacks aimed at British parliamentarians and leaking and amplifying sensitive information to serve Russian interests. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Britain has also sanctioned hundreds of wealthy Russians and moved to clamp down on money laundering through London’s property and financial markets.

The government said Wednesday’s actions followed criminal cases in London alleging espionage and sabotage by people acting on behalf of Russia.

It also cited allegations that the Russian government planned to sabotage military aid for Ukraine in Germany and Poland and carried out spying in Bulgaria and Italy, along with cyber and disinformation activities, air space violations and jamming GPS signals to hamper civilian air traffic.

“Since the illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s attempts to undermine UK and European security have become increasingly brazen,” Foreign Secretary David Cameron said. “These measures are an unequivocal message to the Russian state — their actions will not go unanswered.”

Elovik has been based in Britain since at least 2020. Russian state news agency Tass said he was summoned to the U.K.’s Defense Ministry the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

He has subsequently been pictured laying flowers to Soviet soldiers who died during the Second World War in both London and Manchester.

We reported for months on changes sweeping Russia. Here’s what we found.

“Russia, Remastered” reveals how Vladimir Putin is harnessing the war in Ukraine to transform his own country and fulfill his vision of a restored superpower.

Vladimir Putin is positioning Russia as America’s most dangerous and aggressive enemy, and transforming his country in ways that stand to make it a bitter adversary of the West for decades to come.

Over more than six months, The Washington Post examined the profound changes sweeping Russia as Putin has used his war in Ukraine to cement his authoritarian grip on power.

The Russian leader is militarizing his society and infusing it with patriotic fervor, reshaping the education system , condemning scientists as traitors, promoting a new Orthodox religiosity and retrograde roles for women, and conditioning a new generation of youth to view the West as a mortal enemy in a fight for Russia’s very survival.

For this series — “Russia, Remastered” — our journalists reported extensively in Russia, especially Moscow and St. Petersburg, and central and western parts of the country. They also met with or spoke to Russians living in exile around the world, including officials, analysts, experts and civilians.

Our reporting also relied on government documents, including presidential decrees, transcripts of Putin’s speeches and remarks at public events, national and local Russian news reports and television broadcasts, social media posts, blogs and Telegram channels.

Some people interviewed for this series in Russia have since been imprisoned or have fled.

Here’s what our reporting revealed:

The new Russia is positioning itself as a superpower nemesis of the United States.

Russia’s leader-for-life is working to restore his country’s global power of the Soviet era — not as a Communist bulwark but as a champion of Orthodox Christian values and an opponent of liberal freedoms in permanent conflict with the West, in a world redivided by big powers into spheres of influence where authoritarianism is an accepted alternative to democracy. Flouting global norms and thumbing his nose at international institutions, Putin is forging military partnerships with other totalitarian regimes that also view the United States as a threat, including China, Iran and North Korea.

The new Russia claims to defend Orthodox values against Western cultural influences.

In November 2022, Putin signed a decree defining Orthodox values, puritanical morality and the rejection of LGBTQ+ identity as crucial to Russia’s national security. Putin has outlined a messianic mission to save the world from what he calls a decadent, permissive West, an approach he hopes will resonate in socially conservative nations in the Global South. The highly politicized judicial system and media heavily controlled by the Kremlin are being used to crack down on nightclubs and parties, and new patriotic mandates are being imposed on artists, filmmakers and cultural institutions.

The new Russia is militarizing society and indoctrinating a new generation of patriots.

Harnessing the war in Ukraine, Putin has engineered a deeply militarized society, rewarding war veterans and their children with places in higher education; introducing military training in schools; and elevating those involved in the war into leadership roles. Telegram channels tell women how to be good soldiers’ wives (by not complaining or crying); schoolchildren make drone fins, trench candles and custom socks for soldiers with amputed limbs. The education system has been imbued with patriotic fervor. Liberal humanities programs are shut down in favor of programs that promote nationalist ideology, and partnerships with Western schools have been canceled.

The new Russia is glorifying Stalin and rewriting history to whitewash Soviet crimes

Some people who had close contact with Putin in his early years as president described his fervent mission to rebuild Russia as a superpower and his admiration not only for imperial czars but also for the Soviet dictator and wartime leader Joseph Stalin, who engineered the Great Terror, the purges of the mid-to-late 1930s, sent millions to the gulag system of prisons and forced labor camps, and had about 800,000 people executed for political reasons. At least 95 of the 110 Stalin monuments in Russia were erected during Putin’s time as leader.

The new Russia is crushing all dissent and restricting personal freedoms.

Putin has squashed the political opposition in Russia making protests illegal, criminalizing criticism of the war, and designating liberal nongovernmental organizations and independent media, journalists, writers, lawyers and activists as foreign agents, undesirable organizations, extremists or terrorists. Hundreds of political activists have been jailed. Tens of thousands of Russians have fled in a historic exodus, with some worried they would be cut off from the world by sanctions, some afraid of being conscripted and sent to the front, and others fearing they would be persecuted for opposing Putin or the war.

About this series:

Reporting by Robyn Dixon, Francesca Ebel, Mary Ilyushina and Natalia Abbakumova. Photography by Nanna Heitmann and Ksenia Ivanova. Graphics reporting by Júlia Ledur.

Lead editors: David M. Herszenhorn and Wendy Galietta. Additional editing by Vanessa Larson and Martha Murdock. Design and development by Yutao Chen and Anna Lefkowitz. Design editing by Christine Ashack. Photo editing by Olivier Laurent. Video editing by Jon Gerberg. Graphics editing by Samuel Granados.

Additional support from Matt Clough, Kenneth Dickerman, Jordan Melendrez and Joe Snell.

About our reporters:

Robyn Dixon, The Post’s Moscow bureau chief since November 2019, is on her third stint covering Russia, having had previous assignments with the Los Angeles Times and the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age dating back to 1993. She speaks Russian, French and English.

Francesca Ebel, a Russia correspondent for The Post since November 2022, previously covered Russia and Ukraine as a multimedia journalist for the Associated Press and was an AP correspondent based in Tunis. She has a bachelor’s degree in medieval and modern languages from Cambridge University, where she studied Russian, Ukrainian and French.

Mary Ilyushina, a Post reporter covering Russia since 2021, previously worked for CNN’s Moscow bureau as a field producer. She speaks Russian, English, Ukrainian and Arabic and is a graduate of Moscow State University.

Natalia Abbakumova has been a researcher and translator in The Post’s Moscow bureau since 2001, collaborating during that time with 10 bureau chiefs. Previously, she worked briefly for The Economist. She holds a degree in foreign languages (English and German) from Moscow Linguistic University.