The Washington Post’s Ernesto Londoño reported Thursday that correspondent Jason Rezaian was detained in Iran on Tuesday along with his wife and two other Americans.
“We are deeply troubled by this news and are concerned for the welfare of Jason, Yeganeh and two others said to have been detained with them,” (foreign editor Douglas) Jehl said in a statement.
Rezaian is the Tehran correspondent for the paper. He hasn’t tweeted since July 21. Londoño reported that Rezaian’s wife is also a journalist. She hasn’t tweeted since July 20.
Rezaian, 38, holds American and Iranian citizenship. Yeganeh, an Iranian citizen who has applied for U.S. permanent residency, works as a correspondent for the National, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates.
The other two American citizens detained with them work as freelance photojournalists. Officials have not yet identified them by name.
You can read @jrezaian's #Iran coverage here:
http://t.co/M32BBZTsqs
— Ernesto Londoño (@londonoe) July 24, 2014
In its 2013 report “Attacks on the Press,” Committee to Protect Journalists reported “Iran remains one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists.”
Eighty two journalists sought exile in the past 5 years and 35 journalists were imprisoned as of December 1 of last year.
International journalists had difficulty acquiring visas, and those who did were often subject to strict supervision on the ground. The government said its crackdown on the press was necessary to unravel a foreign conspiracy led by the BBC to undermine the Islamic Republic.
Correction: Along with Rezaian and his wife, two Americans were also detained. An earlier version of this story reported one other American was detained.
