Media executive killed in Turkey

ISTANBUL — An Iranian-born TV mogul who had run afoul of Iran’s government was fatally shot by masked gunmen in Istanbul, media reports said.

The identities of the assailants were unknown. But Saeed Karimian, the director of GEM Group, a Persian-language media conglomerate, was reported killed Saturday night along with his Kuwaiti business partner, whose name was withheld.

The two business executives were driving in a luxury sedan in an upscale district of Istanbul when another vehicle blocked their path, allowing the gunmen to spray Karimian’s car with bullets, according to Turkish media reports. A car that police suspect belonged to the assailants was found torched outside the city.

The 45-year-old businessman, who was also a British national, was reported dead at the scene. His partner died at the hospital, reports said.

It was a brazen assault in a major cosmopolitan city and raised questions about both the safety of Iranian news professionals abroad, and law and order in Turkey’s largest metropolis.

Turkey and Iran are neighbors and major trade partners, but relations have recently been strained. The two are regional rivals and have backed opposing sides in the Syrian civil war.

Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom watchdog, ranks Iran as one of the worst oppressors of journalists in the world. The motive behind the killings, however, remains unclear.

Karimian’s media empire included at least 20 satellite channels, broadcasting in Farsi, Arabic, Azeri and Arabic. The group had offices in London, Istanbul and Dubai, and it often dubbed foreign, including Western, programs in Farsi to be broadcast in Iran.

Those efforts put Karimian in authorities’ crosshairs, and officials frequently criticized the programs as having a corrupting influence. Last year, a court in the Iranian capital, Tehran, sentenced Karimian to six years in absentia for “spreading propaganda.”