a potential prisoner swap between the U.S and Russia could be on the table according to reports a top Russian Diplomat says Russia might be willing to discuss the exchange involving detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich but only after his trial on Espionage charges lead U.S hostage negotiators say American Embassy officials are still being blocked from visiting gershkovich as the U.S and its allies continue calling for his immediate release those calls echoed last night from a group of reporters who gathered at Columbia School of Journalism determined to bring Gershkovich home Ted Goldberg reports as American journalist Evan Gershkovich sits in a Russian jail cell journalists gathered last night in New York to condemn the Kremlin for charging him with Espionage these are made up charges he is wrongfully detained and I think it's very very important the more we focus on the charges and the nature of the charges the more in a sense Credence we're giving to this sort of sham process one reason why uh these charges against Evan are are so absurd is to get the accreditation to work as a journalist in Russia you have to pass a pretty extensive background check from the very same people uh who who have arrested Evan so the the Russian authorities uh know very well that these these charges are are false he went to neighboring countries like Georgia and Kazakhstan and spoke to anti-war Russians who fled Russia in recent months uh those are exactly the stories that the Russian authorities didn't don't want to be published or broadcast the journalists spoke at Columbia University to raise awareness for free Evan a campaign to bring attention to the first American journalist jailed in Russia on Espionage charges since the Cold War they openly criticized Russia not just for arresting gershkovic but also for fostering an environment hostile to journalists and freedom ten days before Evan was arrested uh a guy was arrested on the Metro the Moscow Metro after after another person looked over his shoulder and saw something on his phone that appeared to be too pro-ukrainian right you know and this is the context in which we are operating 82 journalists and media workers have been killed in Russia since 1992 and 37 of them in direct retaliation for their work and only in two of those cases full justice has been achieved when we conducted our most recent prison census in December 2022 there were 19 journalists in Russian jails and that is the highest number ever since we started keeping records gershwitz works for the Wall Street Journal under Chief news editor Elena cherny she says Gershkovich's detainment won't deter the Press from covering stories in Russia it's very very difficult to calibrate that risk and we're all going to have to think differently about operating on the ground in Russia I think many of the news organizations represented some of these organizations your organizations are thinking differently as well but that can't stop us from doing the reporting that we need to do a week before he was arrested he told me like this is the most important job I will ever have this is a story of our generation and um you know he told it and he will continue to tell it I hope he doesn't blame himself he'll get out of this he'll survive he'll Thrive as a journalist and do other great things David Rhodes speaks from his own experience he was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008 and held captive for eight months before he escaped Road worked in Afghanistan but never returned he thinks if gershkovich ever gets free and goes back to work it won't be the country where he worked over the last six years it frustrated me to no end and some people do go back um um but he'll he'll have to sort of work that out his whole career has been covering Russia he's not going to be able to cover Russia and it's not fair President Joe Biden and groups around the world have called for Russia to release gershkovic earlier today a Kremlin official said they'd be open to a prisoner exchange only after a verdict is handed down in his case in New York City I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news