{"id":19587,"date":"2026-02-07T06:22:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T06:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19587"},"modified":"2026-02-07T06:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T06:22:28","slug":"bbc-persian-journalists-say-iran-monitoring-them-and-targeting-their-families-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19587","title":{"rendered":"BBC Persian journalists say Iran monitoring them and targeting their families | Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Exiled Iranian journalists working for the BBC have been warned their movements are being closely monitored by the state, as they said their families in Iran<\/a> were being interrogated and persecuted for their reporting.<\/p>\n

Journalists said family members had been threatened with arrest and the seizure of their assets unless their loved ones stopped reporting on Iranian unrest.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has been told of instances in which the parents of journalists had been warned that Iran\u2019s security forces knew where and when they worked, as well as the position of their desk in the newsroom.<\/p>\n

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Staff working for BBC Persian, which reaches 30 million people a week, said the pressure had continued following the unrest that led to tens of thousands of deaths. There are calls for an independent inquiry<\/a> into the number of people killed.<\/p>\n

Journalists have been told they remain targets for the Iranian security services, despite being on UK soil. Some are taking extra security measures after receiving credible death and kidnapping threats.<\/p>\n

Others have already been forced to quit because of the financial pressures placed on their relatives.<\/p>\n

One journalist, who spoke anonymously out of fear that being named would place \u201cmore pressure on my family\u201d, said their father had been detained and warned by security forces that they were monitoring overseas journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey knew everything about me somehow,\u201d the journalist said. \u201cThey said they know where I live. They even gave my father the address, the telephone number, where I\u2019m sitting exactly in the newsroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey knew which programme exactly that I was with and they said \u2018we are not really happy with this programme\u2019.\u201d They said their family had been warned that London was not safe.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Iranian lawmakers in parliament. There are calls for an inquiry into the number of people killed during the unrest.<\/span> Photograph: Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency handout\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There have been credible threats to Iranian journalists in the UK, including the stabbing of a reporter outside his London home<\/a>. Last year, three Iranians appeared in court charged with targeting UK-based journalists<\/a>. They deny the charges.<\/p>\n

The situation became even more critical following Iran\u2019s internet shutdown, which began on 8 January<\/a> and followed nearly two weeks of anti-government protests. State authorities appear to have relaxed internet restrictions more recently, but not removed them, after the violent suppression<\/a> of protests by the security forces.<\/p>\n

Behrang Tajdin, BBC<\/a> Persian TV\u2019s economics correspondent, said his mother was detained and asked about his work. He said he did not hear from her for three weeks during the internet blackout imposed by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the threats look very serious and are made by people who may not be based in Iran, so they may have the means to affect what they are saying,\u201d he said. \u201cSince 2022, it seems like the Iranian regime is hiring third-party criminals to try to harm Iranian journalists and activists based on UK soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cI and many other BBC journalists may work in the same building, but we don\u2019t lead the same sort of life in terms of being confident that we are completely safe. We have to take the situation seriously and that hasn\u2019t abated. We need to be very, very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tajdin said family members of his colleagues had been threatened with having business licences removed or forced into early retirement.<\/p>\n

Another BBC journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, said they had to be careful when calling family members. \u201cAfter these protests, they didn\u2019t leave us,\u201d the journalist said. \u201cIt\u2019s not safe at all after this protest to talk very clearly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of my colleagues, their families already had their assets frozen. Some have been obliged to leave the BBC. I know at least two of them left because their families have been under really big [financial] pressure and they needed the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journalist said the tactic was designed to pressure them out of journalism and it left them feeling guilty. \u201cThey know how to push mental pressure,\u201d they said. \u201c[My family] have no choice because it\u2019s my choice to be a journalist and be out of Iran \u2013 the pressure is on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that I can\u2019t really forgive myself for. Even sometimes when I\u2019m happy, and I want to go [out] with friends to have a normal life, you feel a little bit of shame inside because you feel, OK, the family are under pressure, anything can happen to them, but I\u2019m freely living here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tajdin said: \u201cI cannot count the number of times that a colleague has come to me with teary eyes, saying: \u2018My dad passed away, my mom passed away, and I couldn\u2019t be there to say goodbye. I couldn\u2019t be at their funeral\u2019. Or worse than that \u2013 they\u2019ve got a terrible terminal illness and they can\u2019t be with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t stress this enough \u2013 every single one of us knows that our family members in Iran are being punished on our behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#BBC #Persian #journalists #Iran #monitoring #targeting #families #Iran<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exiled Iranian journalists wor… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}