Journalism should never be a crime. Yet, Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, has a different definition. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal, will face trial in Russia next week on espionage charges. “When such espionage cases go to trial in Russia,” Yevgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer who has worked...

The importance of journalism cannot be overstated. Vital to any democracy, it’s as essential to America as the Constitution. Journalism teaches us about the issues necessary to become good citizens. It confronts falsehoods with facts. It shines an important light on lies, fraud, hypocrisy, misinformation as well as illegality—anything and everything that threatens the public interest. Ultimately, journalism acts as...