Bloomberg disciplines journalists over broken embargo on prisoner swap article

Bloomberg News' editor-in-chief said Monday that the publication had disciplined multiple journalists involved in breaking an embargo last week tied to the major prisoner swap, in what he said was "a clear violation of the editorial standards".

John Micklethwait, the newsroom's top editor, said in an email to its staff that Bloomberg had disciplined the people after an investigation by the organisation's standards editor into how the embargo, which was set by the Biden administration, was broken.

He said Bloomberg would "be reviewing our processes to ensure that failures like this don't happen again."

The email did not specify what the disciplinary actions were or who they involved.

Bloomberg published an article at 7:41 am Thursday detailing the complicated prisoner exchange that resulted in the release of Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the The Wall Street Journal, and many others.

Jennifer Jacobs, a senior White House reporter who had the first byline on the article, has left the company, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. An editor involved in the story was demoted, according to two other people.

Jacobs said in a statement posted on social media Monday that "the idea that I would jeopardise the safety of a fellow reporter is deeply upsetting on a level that's difficult to describe".

She said that she had worked with her editors while reporting on Gershkovich's release, adhering to editorial guidelines and standards.

"At no time did I do anything that was knowingly inconsistent with the administration's embargo or that would put anyone involved at risk," Jacobs wrote. She added that reporters do not have the final say over when an article is published or what headline it is given.

A Bloomberg News spokesperson declined to comment.

Numerous US news outlets, including The New York Times, had learned details about the swap from government officials before it happened, under the condition that the organisations could not publish the news until the prisoners were safely out of Russian hands and in US custody.

The Bloomberg article initially said, incorrectly, that the Americans had already been released. It was updated about an hour later with an editors' note correcting the error.

Micklethwait, in his email to the staff on Monday, said the article had been "prematurely published" and could have endangered the swap.

"Even if our story mercifully ended up making no difference, it was a clear violation of the editorial standards, which have made this newsroom so trusted around the world," he wrote.

Micklethwait said in his email that he had apologized on Thursday to Emma Tucker, The Wall Street Journal's editor-in-chief, and that he had written to each of the prisoners to personally apologise.

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