Reporters Without Borders: Iran Must Stop Intimidating Independent Journalists

Reporters Without Borders has condemned threats and pressure against Persian-speaking colleagues at international media outlets and independent journalists residing abroad, as well as their families. Iran’s judiciary has announced a ban on transactions involving Iran International staff.

Iran International television announced that the Islamic Republic’s judiciary has pressured the families of a group of the network’s colleagues through summonses to intelligence centers and threatened them to convince their children and relatives to stop working.

“Iran International” described such actions as unethical and asked freedom of expression organizations to condemn the Iranian government’s actions and call on Iranian officials to free the internet and provide conditions for people to access real news, instead of harassing innocent families.

In the latest move, Mizan news agency, affiliated with the judiciary, announced that Iran International staff have been banned from transactions due to their coverage of recent protests. Iran International television said it will file a complaint against the Islamic Republic government through international bodies.

According to information received by Reporters Without Borders, in addition to Iran International staff, a number of journalists from “Radio Farda,” “BBC,” “Voice of America,” “Me and You,” and “Kayhan London” have been threatened by Iranian security services in various ways; from direct threats to cyber attacks or intimidation on social media networks. Families of some of these journalists have also been threatened inside the country.

In a statement by Reporters Without Borders, threatened journalists prefer that their names not be disclosed to avoid further pressure. This comes as Farnaz Ghazi-zadeh, a senior BBC journalist, tweeted about the summons of her 73-year-old father and that she was warned about her two daughters. Ms. Ghazi-zadeh wrote: “Our families are hostages.”

Threats from a Diplomat

Reporters Without Borders also condemned posts by Hamid Baeidi-Nejad, Iran’s ambassador to Britain, who “constantly threatens media outlets and journalists on his Twitter account.”

Baeidi-Nejad, who previously served as director of political affairs and international security at the Foreign Ministry, posted on Twitter two days after the internet was cut off in Iran: “The Iranian people will never forget these days when hostile networks like BBC Persian, VOA, Me and You, and Iran International, funded by foreign governments and the Pahlavi group, are trying to present organized rioters, murderers and arsonists as political critics and push Iran into insecurity.”

Reporters Without Borders reminded that threatening citizens, especially journalists and media outlets of a country, is not the duty of an ambassador: “We call on the authorities of the United Kingdom to pay attention to these threatening and dangerous actions against freedom of the media and journalists.”

In the Reporters Without Borders statement, Hamid Baeidi-Nejad is called the “ambassador of threats.”

Baeidi-Nejad posted another tweet about sending a complaint letter to Ofcom, the television regulatory body in Britain, against the aforementioned media outlets, claiming that these outlets distorted recent developments in Iran and called on audiences to commit widespread violence against Iranian civil institutions.

During the protests related to the 2009 elections, the families of BBC Persian and Radio Farda journalists were also harassed and threatened. Shortly after, staff of these media outlets were banned from transactions and their assets in Iran were confiscated.

Source: DW