{"id":3316,"date":"2025-06-28T18:24:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T18:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/?p=3316"},"modified":"2025-06-28T18:24:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T18:24:20","slug":"continued-threats-and-harassment-against-families-of-iranian-journalists-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/continued-threats-and-harassment-against-families-of-iranian-journalists-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Continued Threats and Harassment Against Families of Iranian Journalists Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amid ongoing threats against Iranian journalists living abroad, security agents in the Islamic Republic have threatened to “take hostage” the families of BBC Persian journalists.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 26, 2025, BBC<\/a> published a report highlighting an escalation of threats against BBC Persian journalists and their families, coinciding with the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict. The report stated: “According to the journalists recently affected, Iranian security officials contacting their families have claimed that, in a wartime context, they are justified in targeting family members as hostages. They have also labelled the journalists as “mohareb” \u2014 a term meaning ‘one who wages war against God’ \u2014 a charge that, under Iranian law, can carry the death penalty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BBC had previously issued a statement<\/a> expressing “deep concern over the harassment of BBC Persian journalists and their families,” urging Iranian authorities to “immediately cease this campaign of intimidation and stop the threats, violence, and psychological abuse against journalists.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 24, 2025, Voice of America\u2019s Persian service<\/a> also reported security pressures on the families of its staff. The report noted: “Families of several journalists and contributors to Voice of America\u2019s Persian service in Iran have faced intimidation and detention in recent days. Families have been threatened that if their relatives\u2019 media activities with Voice of America do not cease, they will face ‘consequences’ in Iran.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Manoto TV reported cases of threats against employees\u2019 families and demands to cut all ties with the outlet. Iran International TV<\/a> also announced during the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict that “IRGC forces in Tehran detained the family of one of Iran International\u2019s presenters to pressure them into severing ties with the network. The presenter\u2019s father, mother, and younger brother are currently held in an undisclosed location.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first instance of Iranian journalists abroad and their families facing harassment by Islamic Republic agents. Journalists from various Persian-language media have repeatedly been targeted with fabricated cases, threats, assassination plots, and knife attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defending the Free Flow of Information (DeFFI) strongly condemns the ongoing threats against Iranian journalists abroad and their families, viewing them as a blatant attack on freedom of expression and a gross violation of citizens\u2019 right to access independent information. Such actions, aimed at intimidating journalists and disrupting the free flow of information, are unacceptable and violate the fundamental rights of Iranian citizens. DeFFI calls for urgent, decisive, and effective measures by governments and international organizations to protect Iranian journalists and their families from the Islamic Republic\u2019s organized transnational threats and harassment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid ongoing threats against Iranian journalists living abroad, security agents in the Islamic Republic have threatened to “take hostage” the families of BBC Persian journalists. On June 26, 2025, BBC published a report highlighting an escalation of threats against BBC Persian journalists and their families, coinciding with the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict. The report stated: “According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,89,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-news-highlights","9":"category-repression-of-media"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3318,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3316\/revisions\/3318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}