Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the treatment of BBC World Service journalists working for the Persian language service by the authorities in Iran; and what representations they have made to the government of Iran about the harassment of journalists in that country.

We condemn the persecution of current and former BBC Persian employees and their family members, and the many individuals who have had their assets frozen or are banned from leaving Iran. We regularly raise this issue of harassment directly with the Iranian government, as well as in multilateral fora. At the UN Third Committee in October 2020 we urged Iran to cease their harassment of journalists and media organisations, and at the Human Rights Council in March 2021 we made it clear to Iran that their repeated violations of human rights are unacceptable. We reiterated our concerns on 24 June 2021 at the BBC Persian event, attended by multiple supporters of media freedom, which took place alongside the Human Rights Council. These actions by the Iranian authorities contravene multiple international human rights obligations, and we will continue to call them out for as long as they commit them.