On the ninth day of the war between Iran and Israel, Iran International television announced in a statement that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) detained three family members of one of its presenters residing in Iran.
Without naming the presenter, Iran International published a statement on its website stating: “IRGC forces in Tehran have detained the family of an Iran International presenter to pressure her into ceasing collaboration with the network. The presenter’s father, mother and younger brother are currently held in an undisclosed location.”
The statement further noted: “On the early morning of Saturday, June 21, the female presenter received a phone call from her father, during which he urged her to end her cooperation with Iran International. In the background, the voices of Islamic Republic security agents could be heard dictating the statements to her father.”
This is not the first instance of Iranian journalists abroad and their families facing harassment by agents of the Islamic Republic. Numerous incidents have seen journalists from various Persian-language media outlets targeted with threats, assassination plots, and knife attacks. Previously, the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent Fact-Finding Committee, in paragraph 84 of its initial report, confirmed that the Islamic Republic has “harassed, threatened, and intimidated journalists and other staff working for media outlets abroad, including those at BBC Persian, Iran International, Voice of America, IranWire, and Deutsche Welle.”
Defending Free Flow of Information (DeFFI) strongly condemns the detention of family members of an Iran International female presenter, viewing it as a blatant attack on freedom of expression and a gross violation of citizens’ right to access independent information. Such actions, aimed at intimidating journalists and disrupting the free flow of information, are utterly unacceptable and a breach of the fundamental rights of Iranian citizens. DeFFI demands the immediate release of those detained. Furthermore, DeFFI calls for urgent, resolute, and effective measures by governments and international institutions to protect Iranian journalists and their families from transnational threats and the systematic harassment orchestrated by the Islamic Republic.