October 14, 2022
In an unprecedented move, three United Nations human rights rapporteurs have raised “grave concerns” with Iran over its treatment of BBC News staff operating in the region.
The BBC filed a complaint with the UN earlier this year regarding BBC News Persian staffers, which spotlighted online attacks against journalists, gendered attacks faced by women and increased financial pressure from an asset freeze that operates as a “blunt financial sanction.”
The UN’s response directed to Iran, which was delivered in May but was just published in August, said it had “raised grave concerns over the continuation of reported harassment and intimidation of the BBC News Persian staff and their family members, which appears to be aimed at preventing them from continuing their journalistic activities with BBC News Persian.”
Three UN human rights rapporteurs examined the case and said Iran was “showing a pattern and practice of employing these measures to hinder journalists from carrying out their work” and requested a formal response from the Iranian government.
Iran’s response claimed BBC journalists were aiming to “overthrow the Islamic Republic” and complained of “hostile coverage that tarnishes the regime and incites riots.”
The UN experts have disputed these claims and requested information about the status of the asset freeze and an explanation of the justification and legal basis for it, as well as a request that Iran to provide “information about the legal and factual basis for interrogating the families of journalists working abroad” and how it is compatible with Iran’s international human-rights obligations.
Liliane Landor, director of the BBC World Service, said: “We are grateful to the United Nations for raising our grave concerns about the treatment of our BBC News Persian journalists. We reject Iran’s attempt to justify its behavior the sanctions and harassment against our colleagues and their families must stop.”
The three UN human rights rapporteurs who signed the report were: Javaid Rehman, the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran; Irene Khan, the special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression; and Reem Alsalem, the special rapporteur on violence against women.
A poll among Iranians taken last year by GAMAAN, a Netherlands-based survey organization, said the majority of Iranians don’t get their broadcast news from Iranian state television. The poll showed 33 percent watch the news on the London-based Iran International, 30 percent watch London-based Manota TV, 17 percent watch BBC Farsi, 16-1/2 percent watched Los Angeles-based Jam TV, 16 percent watched Iranian state broadcasting, and 11 percent watched the Voice of America. The total came to well over 100 percent because a number of respondents said they watched more than one news source.
