BBC accuses Iran of escalating intimidation of Persian service journalists

The BBC on Monday accused Iran of stepping up pressure on journalists working for its Persian language service by intimidating their families in Iran, calling the moves a "sharp and deeply troubling escalation."

BBC Persian staff members' relatives in Iran are being subjected to arbitrary interrogations, travel bans, passport confiscations and threats of asset seizures, BBC Director-General Tim Davie said in a statement.

“These acts are clearly designed to exploit family ties as a means of coercion,” Davie said, adding Tehran authorities were “pressuring our journalists to abandon their work or return to Iran under false pretences.”

Iranian authorities have targeted its Persian language journalists covering the country over the past decade, the BBC says, prompting the broadcaster to lodge urgent complaints with the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 and again in 2022.

The British public broadcaster is preparing to lodge a new complaint with the UN Human Rights Council Special Procedures, according to its statement on Monday.

In recent years, other journalists from other Persian-language outlets including those from Iran International have reported similar attempts at intimidation.

In May 2025, British authorities arrested and charged three Iranian nationals—Mostafa Sepahvand, Farhad Javadi Manesh, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori—under the UK's National Security Act.

They are accused of conducting surveillance and reconnaissance activities targeting Iran International journalists inside the United Kingdom.

The threats against Iran International staff have become a recurrent issue, dating back to 2022 when London's Metropolitan Police revealed plots against staff in London. In 2023, the threats reached a climax with the UK's MI5 saying it could no longer protect the team, forcing a temporary relocation to the US.

In March 2024, Pouria Zeraati, the television host of the "Last Word" program on Iran International, was stabbed by a group of unidentified individuals as he exited his residence in London.

Journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders said last year that Tehran was carrying out "systematic targeting of journalists reporting on Iran from abroad, in an effort to silence them."

"London, home to major Persian-language broadcasters, has been a hotspot for such attacks because of the large number of Iranian journalists based there," the group added.