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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 were being interrogated and persecuted for their reporting.
Journalists said family members had been threatened with arrest and the seizure of their assets unless their loved ones stopped reporting on Iranian unrest.
The Guardian has been told of instances in which the parents of journalists had been warned that Iran’s security forces knew where and when they worked, as well as the position of their desk in the newsroom.
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 into the number of people killed.
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.
Others have already been forced to quit because of the financial pressures placed on their relatives.
One journalist, who spoke anonymously out of fear that being named would place “more pressure on my family”, said their father had been detained and warned by security forces that they were monitoring overseas journalists.
“They knew everything about me somehow,” the journalist said. “They said they know where I live. They even gave my father the address, the telephone number, where I’m sitting exactly in the newsroom.
“They knew which programme exactly that I was with and they said ‘we are not really happy with this programme’.” They said their family had been warned that London was not safe.
There have been credible threats to Iranian journalists in the UK, including the stabbing of a reporter outside his London home. Last year, three Iranians appeared in court charged with targeting UK-based journalists. They deny the charges.
The situation became even more critical following Iran’s internet shutdown, which began on 8 January 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 of protests by the security forces.
Behrang Tajdin, BBC Persian TV’s 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.
“Some 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,” he said. “Since 2022, it seems like the Iranian regime is hiring third-party criminals to try to harm Iranian journalists and activists based on UK soil.
“I and many other BBC journalists may work in the same building, but we don’t 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’t abated. We need to be very, very careful.”
Tajdin said family members of his colleagues had been threatened with having business licences removed or forced into early retirement.
Another BBC journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, said they had to be careful when calling family members. “After these protests, they didn’t leave us,” the journalist said. “It’s not safe at all after this protest to talk very clearly.
“Many 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.”
The journalist said the tactic was designed to pressure them out of journalism and it left them feeling guilty. “They know how to push mental pressure,” they said. “[My family] have no choice because it’s my choice to be a journalist and be out of Iran – the pressure is on them.
“This is something that I can’t really forgive myself for. Even sometimes when I’m 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’m freely living here.”
Tajdin said: “I cannot count the number of times that a colleague has come to me with teary eyes, saying: ‘My dad passed away, my mom passed away, and I couldn’t be there to say goodbye. I couldn’t be at their funeral’. Or worse than that – they’ve got a terrible terminal illness and they can’t be with them.
“I can’t stress this enough – every single one of us knows that our family members in Iran are being punished on our behalf.”
