'Highlight the injustice' - Brighton beach swim supports journalist Evan Gershkovich one-year after his imprisonment in Russia

Journalists swam in solidarity at 10 Brighton beaches around the world to mark one year since an American reporter was imprisoned in Russia.

Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich was detained in March last year while on a reporting trip, accused of espionage which he, the media outlet and US government strongly deny.

The global beach swims on Saturday are in tribute to Gershkovich’s love of Brighton beach in the UK and New York as a way of highlighting the injustice, Wall Street Journal reporter Alistair MacDonald said.

MacDonald said: “Evan is among the nicest, most positive people you could hope to meet and the fact that he has been in a Russian jail for a year, for merely doing his job, is appalling.

“So, keeping attention on his incarceration, and the wider issue of journalists being jailed around the world, is important.

“Evan used to visit Brighton beach in New York when he was younger, and when he came to England he became a big fan of the original, here on the south coast.

“We thought that a global Brighton beach swim was one way to highlight the injustice while letting him know that he has not been forgotten.”

Dozens of journalists and swimmers took part in the Brighton beach swim in East Sussex while more than 100 supporters worldwide swam in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Jamaica, the US and Canada.

Other reporters taking part work for media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, The New York Times, the West Australian, the Globe & Mail, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sussex World.