Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle the intimidation and harassment of BBC Persian journalists by the Iranian authorities.

The reports of BBC Persian staff in Iran being harassed and subject to asset freezes and similar forms of mistreatment are deeply worrying. The Foreign Secretary raised this in Tehran in November 2018 as did the former Minister of the Middle East and North Africa in August 2018. In March 2019 we also supported the renewal of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. We will continue to regularly raise this issue at all levels of the Iranian Government.