Bloomberg disciplines staff over 'premature' report of prisoner swap

Bloomberg News said it had taken "disciplinary action" against editorial staff after the outlet "prematurely" published news of the historic prisoner swap between Russia and the United States last week that it said could have endangered the safety of the Americans being released.

- Andrew Roth

In an email to staff on Monday, the editor-in-chief, John Micklethwait, wrote that a number of staff members had been disciplined.

At least one reporter on the story appears to have been fired in a rare case in which a journalist was punished for a decision to publish a major news story that would probably have been reviewed by senior editors.

In a letter to staff, the contents of which were confirmed by the Guardian, Micklethwait wrote: "Last Thursday, we prematurely published a story on the release of Evan Gershkovich and the other prisoners, which could have endangered the negotiated swap that set them free.