Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to protect BBC journalists in Tehran.

The reports of BBC Persian staff in Iran being harassed and subject to asset freezes and similar forms of mistreatment are deeply worrying. The former Foreign Secretary raised our concerns about harassment of BBC Persian staff and their families in Iran with his Iranian counterpart during his visit to Tehran on 9-10 December 2017. I raised this issue directly with the Government of Iran when I visited Tehran in September 2018. We will continue to raise this issue at all levels.