BBC asks UN to condemn Iran allegations

In a formal filing to the United Nations over the targeting of BBC News Persian staff and their families, the BBC World Service has expressed deep concern over Iran’s new and extreme language used in relation to BBC News Persian. It has urged the UN experts to condemn Iran’s conduct towards the BBC and Iran’s attempts to frame independent journalism as a form of “terrorism” and “warfare”.

In September 2025, Iran responded to the UN urgent appeal filed in June by the BBC World Service where the BBC raised concern with the escalation of harassment, targeting and threats towards the BBC News Persian staff – and their families in Iran – in the wake of the service’s reporting on the Iran-Israel conflict. The BBC also had urged the UN to take action after the publication of the report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of the UK Parliament in July this year about Iran’s transnational repression. The “Iran” report confirmed that in the previous 12-18 months there was an escalation of physical threats and consistent targeting of the UK-based Persian-language media organisations, whom Iran perceives as “deeply undermining of the Iranian regime”; that BBC News Persian was a “prominent target” of transnational repression from Iran; and that there was a “high risk of physical attacks” in the UK.

In its response to the UN, Iran justified its ongoing, unlawful actions towards BBC journalists. Using extreme language regarding the BBC for the first time in an official filing with the UN, Iran accused BBC News Persian in “media warfare”, “trying to target the security of the country by influencing the beliefs, culture, politics and behaviour of society”. Making unfounded allegations against BBC News Persian and its reporting, Iran called on the UN rapporteurs to “evaluate” the work of Western media such as the BBC as “media terrorism”. Iran’s response also marks the first time its government has officially acknowledged that legal action has been taken against BBC News Persian staff in Iran. Before this admission, attempts to obtain information on this from the judiciary in Iran have failed.

Tarik Kafala, Middle East and North Africa Regional Director, BBC World Service, said: “The extreme, highly alarming language the Islamic Republic of Iran has used in an official government filings with the UN demonstrates the Iranian authorities’ attitude towards independent journalism and our reporting of the country. We are deeply concerned that, instead of putting an end to the harassment and threats to our staff and their families in Iran, with this language Iran signals new forms of targeting them, now justifying their persecution with counter-terrorism and national security laws. We condemn these actions.”

Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, added: “The UN must condemn the escalating intimidation and persecution of media workers by the Iranian state. Journalists at BBC Persian are paying a huge personal price simply for doing their job. It takes enormous courage and the deepest sense of duty for a journalist to continue pursuing the truth in the face of relentless state repression. The NUJ stands in solidarity with journalists under threat and demands an end to the Iranian state’s campaign against press freedom and journalists’ rights.”

Counsel for the BBC World Service has today filed with the UN a submission, expressing alarm over the extreme language used by the Islamic Republic of Iran in relation to the BBC’s reporting and over Iran’s attempt to justify the ongoing unlawful actions towards BBC staff and their families. The submission urges the UN experts to condemn Iran’s conduct towards the BBC and Iran’s attempts to frame independent journalism as a form of terrorism and warfare. The BBC calls on the UN experts to request further information from Iran about the legal action against the BBC. It urges them to directly raise concern with Iran about efforts to characterise BBC journalism as “media terrorism” or “soft war” and about abusing national security and counter-terrorism laws to target and harass journalists and their families.

The BBC World Service has engaged with the UN over the protection of its Iranian journalists and their families since 2017, after Iran launched a national security criminal investigation into 152 BBC staff and former staff, along with an asset freeze against all of their assets in Iran, including those owned jointly with family members. Since then, a number of BBC News Persian journalists have been convicted in absentia in Iran for their reporting.

BBC News Persian is part of the BBC World Service.