‘Stop persecution of BBC journalists in Iran’

BRITISH broadcaster the BBC said on Monday it was appealing to the United Nations to protect its journalists in Iran after it said persecution and harassment by the Iranian authorities escalated in 2017.

“The BBC is taking the unprecedented step of appealing to the United Nations because our own attempts to persuade the Iranian authorities to end their harassment have been completely ignored,” BBC Director General Tony Hall said in a statement. “In fact, during the past nine years, the collective punishment of BBC Persian Service journalists and their families has worsened.”

The broadcaster said journalists in London working on BBC Persian, part of the BBC World Service, and their families in Iran had been targeted since the satellite TV station launched in 2009.

The harassment escalated last year when Iranian authorities alleged the service’s work was a crime against Iran’s national security and froze the assets of more than 152 current and former BBC Persian staff, it said.