Threats to BBC News Persian journalists continuing

The BBC has issued this statement:

There has been a sharp and deeply troubling escalation in the persecution of BBC News Persian journalists in the UK and their families in Iran over recent months. This campaign of intimidation, orchestrated by the Iranian authorities, has intensified in both scale and severity.

BBC News Persian journalists – alongside other Iranian journalists based in the UK and around the world – face serious extraterritorial threats from the Iranian authorities. These threats have consistently extended to their families in Iran, who have been subjected to a sustained campaign of intimidation. However, the BBC is now witnessing a surge of arbitrary interrogations, travel bans, passport confiscations, threats of asset seizures directed at the family members of BBC News Persian journalists  – marking a significant and increasingly alarming escalation.

Tim Davie, BBC Director-General, says: “In addition to enduring personal security threats from Iranian state actors operating beyond Iran’s borders, BBC News Persian journalists are now witnessing a disturbing rise in the persecution of their family members inside Iran. These acts are clearly designed to exploit family ties as a means of coercion – pressuring our journalists to abandon their work or return to Iran under false pretences.

“We call on the Iranian authorities to immediately cease this campaign of intimidation and to stop targeting journalists with violence, threats, and psychological warfare. This persecution is a direct assault on press freedom and human rights. It must end now.”

The BBC is preparing to lodge a new complaint with the UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures mandate-holders, calling on Iran to cease its campaign of persecution of BBC journalists and their families.