Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the criminal charges issued by the Iranian authorities against BBC Persian staff; and what representations he has made to his Iranian counterpart on that subject.

We are concerned by the charges against BBC Persian staff. I call upon the Government of Iran to cease all such action against BBC staff and their families, and to end harassment of independent journalists, whether affiliated to the BBC or not. Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are essential to a free and open society.

We expressed our concern about Iranian treatment of BBC Persian staff at the UN Human Rights Council on 12 March and both the Foreign Secretary and I have raised the issue, including the criminal charges, with our Iranian counterparts on several occasions. Most recently I raised these issues during my visit to Tehran on 29 April. We will continue to raise the treatment of BBC Persian staff and their families with the Iranian government at all levels.