Iran International: TV channel says Iran threatened UK-based journalists

Two British-Iranian journalists for the UK-based Persian-language TV transmission Iran International person been warned of a imaginable hazard to their lives, a UK instrumentality enforcement root has confirmed.

Parent institution Volant Media said the Metropolitan Police had notified the brace of a caller summation successful "credible" threats from Iranian information forces.

It denounced the "escalation of a state-sponsored run to intimidate Iranian journalists moving abroad".

Iranian authorities person not commented.

However, they announced sanctions against Iran International and BBC News Persian past month, accusing them of "incitement of riots" and "support of terrorism" implicit their sum of the anti-government protests that person engulfed the state implicit the past 2 months.

The 2 UK-based channels are already banned from Iran, but a property state watchdog says they are among the main sources of quality and accusation successful a state wherever autarkic media and journalists are perpetually persecuted.

"The Metropolitan Police person present formally notified some journalists that these threats correspond an imminent, credible and important hazard to their lives and those of their families. Other members of our unit person besides been informed straight by the Metropolitan Police of abstracted threats."

It added: "These lethal threats to British citizens connected British ungraded travel aft respective weeks of warnings from the IRGC and Iranian authorities astir the enactment of a escaped and uncensored [Persian]-language media moving successful London."

Volant Media warned that the IRGC "cannot beryllium allowed to export their pernicious media crackdown to the UK" and called connected the British authorities to "join america successful condemning these horrific threats and proceed to item the value of media freedom".

In a connection to the BBC, the Metropolitan Police said: "We bash not remark connected matters of protective information successful narration to immoderate circumstantial individuals."

BBC location affairs analogous Daniel Sandford reports that the UK instrumentality enforcement root would not sermon the proposition successful the Daily Telegraph that a "hostile Iranian surveillance team" was spotted extracurricular the homes and offices of the journalists.

They acceptable retired the signifier of harassment that BBC journalists person suffered implicit the past decade, including "the systematic attacks, including harassment, plus freezing, superior threats, and defamation campaigns implemented by the authorities against BBC News Persian journalists".

The UN experts besides raised interest astir the surveillance of BBC journalists and the harassment of their sources successful Iran, the interrogation of journalists' household members, and the unit placed connected journalists "to permission their jobs" - each of which they said mightiness person a "chilling effect" connected journalism.

Iran's effect to the UN experts accused the BBC journalists of aiming to "overthrow the Islamic Republic" - a assertion the BBC insisted was false.

Iran's authorities said the allegations were "ridiculous and baseless".