Two Journalists, Two Regimes, Two Trumped-Up Arrests

In May, Project Brazen released a podcast about Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who was arrested by Russian authorities back in March. Evan was falsely accused of espionage, and he’s being held in a Moscow prison until his trial date in August. In that episode, we explored questions around press freedom, journalist safety and security, and the future of foreign correspondence in an increasingly polarized and hostile world. For this episode, reporter Neha Wadekar spoke to another journalist - one who probably can relate to Evan’s situation better than anyone. Jason Rezaian moved to Tehran in 2009 and became the Washington Post correspondent and Tehran bureau chief there. In 2014, Jason and his wife - who was also a journalist - were arrested on charges of espionage. Jason was held for 544 days and convicted of espionage, before finally being released and returning to the United States. We interviewed Jason about the similarities and differences in the two cases and asked him to share a message for Evan Gershkovich.