UN experts denounce Iranian 'threats' against BBC staff

Four United Nations experts call out Tehran for allegedly intimidating BBC and other broadcast journalists and their families with death threats.

Voicing their “alarm” in a joint statement, the special rapporteurs — independent experts who do not speak for the UN but report their findings to it — urge the Iranian authorities to stop threatening reporters.

“Journalists working for the BBC Persian Service and other Farsi-language news outlets outside Iran have faced threats, criminal investigations, unlawful surveillance, freezing of assets, defamation and harassment by Iranian authorities,” they say.

“Several journalists have also been targeted for going public about the harassment and seeking protection from the UN.”

— AFP