Bloomberg Disciplines Journalists Who Broke News Embargo on Prisoner Swap

Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait has announced that the company has taken disciplinary action against a number of journalists involved in prematurely publishing a story on the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other Americans.

Bloomberg News has taken disciplinary action against journalists involved in prematurely publishing a story on the historic prisoner swap that brought Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovish and other Americans home after being wrongfully detained in Russia. The company has called the incident a "clear violation" of editorial standards that could have put the prisoners' freedom in jeopardy.

According to Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, the company has conducted a full investigation over the past few days and has taken disciplinary action against a number of those involved. He said that the company will also be reviewing its editorial process to ensure that failures like this don't happen again.

Bloomberg Disciplines Journalists Who Broke News Embargo on Prisoner Swap

The premature publication of the story was a violation of a news embargo that had been requested by the White House. News organizations were asked to hold their stories until Gershkovich and the other Americans were safely in U.S. custody.

Bloomberg's story, which was published last week, ultimately updated to indicate "an earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect that the Americans have not been released yet."

Bloomberg Disciplines Journalists Who Broke News Embargo on Prisoner Swap

Once the hostages were safely returned, New York magazine reported Bloomberg was in hot water with the White House and other media organizations for breaking the news embargo and prematurely reporting on the release.

The report detailed that "news organizations were asked by the White House to hold their stories until Gershkovich et al. were in U.S. custody," but Bloomberg ran its story before that was confirmed.

Bloomberg Disciplines Journalists Who Broke News Embargo on Prisoner Swap

According to the report, news organizations were told for their awareness that a swap was underway but to hold off on publication until the prisoners' safety was firmly established. Such emargoes and agreements on many kinds of stories are commonplace in the media landscape and allow news organizations to better prepare their coverage.

"According to multiple sources at the Journal and other major outlets, the Bloomberg scoop left journalists and government officials fuming. With a prisoner swap, you don’t know if it’s going to happen until it happens," New York magazine reporter Charlotte Klein wrote. 

Klein reported that Bloomberg senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs, who was one of the two authors of the original piece, was fired as part of the action taken by management. Bloomberg declined comment on Jacobs’ status. Jacobs didn't respond to a request for comment; an email sent to her Bloomberg account bounced back.

Micklethwait, in his memo to staffers, said that he has also apologized to each of the prisoners and to Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker. He said that "given the Wall Street Journal’s tireless efforts on their reporter’s behalf, this was clearly their story to lead the way on."

"We publish thousands of stories every day, many of which break news. We take accuracy very seriously. But we also have a responsibility to do the right thing. In this case we didn’t," he concluded.