Jason Rezaian

Follow @jrezaian

Jason Rezaian was among the very few Western journalists to have been based in Tehran in recent years. From 2009 until his arrest in 2014 he covered a wide range of stories that explained Iran to a general American audience, first as a freelancer magazines and websites and later as The Washington Post's Tehran bureau chief. He reported on two presidential elections, Iran's nuclear negotiations with global powers, the effects of one of the most punitive sanctions regimes in modern times and environmental issues.

In between these momentous topics, he told the stories of everyday Iranians which sought to make them more accessible to readers, reporting on many human interest stories. 

In July of 2014 Rezaian and his wife were detained in their home and he went on to spend 546 days in Tehran's Evin prison, released on January 17, 2016,  the day that the historic nuclear deal between Iran and nuclear powers was implemented.

He was an SMPA Terker Distinguished Fellow from 2016 to 2018.