Iran acknowledged the arrest of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, Ernesto Londoño and William Branigi reported in The Post Friday:
“Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, director general of the Tehran Province Justice Department, told reporters that the “Washington Post journalist has been detained for some questions and after technical investigations, the judiciary will provide details on the issue,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.”
U.S. officials told The Post that Rezaian, 38, was detained with his wife Yeganeh Salehi and two other U.S. citizens this week. Poynter’s Kristen Hare noted that Rezaian has not tweeted since July 21 and his wife has not tweeted since July 20.
Iran has thrown many journalists in jail in recent years for various charges relating to spreading “anti-state” information. As of 2013, 35 journalists were imprisoned in Iran, according to data from The Committee to Protect Journalists. The only country that has imprisoned more journalists than Iran is Turkey, which had 40 journalists imprisoned as of 2013. After that is China, which had imprisoned 32 journalists at that time.
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Rezaian, who has been credentialed to cover Iran for The Post since 2012, has been working in Iran as a journalist since 2008, according to the Post.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Rezaian had worked in Iraq since 2008. That’s incorrect, he has worked in Iran since 2008.
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