Jason Rezaian is one of the few Western journalists to have been based in Tehran in recent years. From 2009 to 2014 he covered stories that tried to explain Iran to a general American audience, first as a freelancer 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 July 2014, Rezaian was detained and he spent 545 days in Tehran’s Evin prison. He was released on the same day the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was implemented.