Victims of prisoner exchange with Russia found in the US
Bloomberg has fired its senior White House reporter for Bloomberg News, Jennifer Jacobs, for prematurely disseminating information about a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia.
The agency also took disciplinary action against other employees after violating a gag order last week to report on the release of several American prisoners held by Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkovich, CNN reported.
In a memo sent to Bloomberg staff and obtained by CNN, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait wrote that the story the publication published last Thursday at 7:41 a.m. ET, which reported that Gershkovich had been released as part of a historic prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia, was "premature."
Bloomberg's report "could have jeopardized the negotiated exchange that resulted in their freedom... Even if our article fortunately did not change anything, it was a clear violation of the editorial standards that make this newsroom trusted around the world," Micklethwaite said.
Bloomberg's standards editor conducted a "full investigation," Micklethwait added, and as a result, the publication not only took disciplinary action against a number of individuals involved but will also review its processes "to ensure similar failures do not happen again."
“During the reporting of the release of Evan Gershkovich, I worked side by side with my editors, adhering to editorial standards and guidelines... I did not do anything that was knowingly contrary to the administration's ban or that would put any of the participants at risk,” Jacobs said in a statement. published in yesterday.
At the same time, Micklethwaite said that he personally wrote letters of apology to each of the prisoners and that he immediately apologized on Thursday to Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker.
Victims of the prisoner swap with Russia have been identified in the US.