On Monday, Bloomberg News acknowledged that it had prematurely published a story last week regarding a prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia. The news organization expressed regret for the error and stated that it had taken disciplinary action against the employees involved.
The article was released almost four hours before the White House lifted the embargo on the exchange.
In a memo addressed to staff on Monday, John Micklethwait, Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief, emphasized that the published story was a clear violation of ethical standards. Bloomberg declined to disclose the number of employees disciplined or their identities.
Micklethwait mentioned that he had personally apologized to each of the former prisoners involved in the exchange. He also revealed that he had contacted the editor of the Wall Street Journal last week, expressing his apologies to them, as their employee, American journalist Evan Gershkovich, was also involved.
“We take accuracy very seriously,” Micklethwait stated in the memo. “But we also have a responsibility to do the right thing. In this case we didn’t.”