{"id":1286,"date":"2018-08-10T16:04:26","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T16:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1286"},"modified":"2018-08-10T16:04:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T16:04:26","slug":"irans-authorities-should-denounce-threat-to-bbc-made-by-iranian-news-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1286","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Authorities Should Denounce Threat to BBC Made by Iranian News Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mizan News Agency \u201cIncites Violence Against Our Journalists\u201d Says BBC<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

August 10, 2018\u2014The inflammatory statements against the BBC that were published on August 7, 2018 by the Mizan News Agency, which functions as the official news website of the Iranian Judiciary, pose a threat to the personal safety of BBC journalists and should be immediately denounced by the Iranian government, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mizan\u00a0wrote, \u201cThere is no doubt that the BBC is a propaganda and security organization\u2026 attached to a joint headquarters in charge of conducting psychological operations aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic whose staff \u2014 and even its domestic collaborators \u2014 must be held accountable for their actions against the Iranian people. One day they will certainly be disgraced in front of the Iranian nation and God\u2019s hand of justice will manifest itself through the arms of the Iranian people, and they will be punished for their actions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese news agencies act as media arms of the state, and given the history of state harassment of the BBC in Iran, such threatening language against BBC journalists must be taken seriously,\u201d said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI\u2019s executive director.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe authorities in Iran are responsible for any violence against these journalists or their families,\u201d said Ghaemi.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a\u00a0response\u00a0published on August 9, the BBC said,\u00a0\u201cThese latest comments \u2026 represent a significant escalation of the threats made against named BBC Persian staff. In deliberately inflammatory language, this statement effectively incites violence against our journalists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said in their\u00a0response, \u201cThe latest pronouncements from the Iranian authorities\u2026[are] totally unacceptable\u2026. These threats represent an intensification of the ongoing, collective punishment of journalists in London and their families in Iran\u2026we call on those with power in Iran to stop violating basic human rights, and stop interfering in legitimate journalism and media freedom.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSuch statements have no place in a country governed by law,\u201d Ghaemi added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Inflammatory comments by state officials and clerics have in the past precipitated severe violence against individuals. For example, when state-affiliated clerics spoke out against women wearing \u201cpoor hijab\u201d (inadequate female covering of the head), a\u00a0series of acid attacks<\/a>\u00a0in Isfahan by unknown assailants left numerous women severely injured. No one was ever prosecuted for those attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC has long been a\u00a0target of state hostility<\/a>\u00a0in Iran as it serves as a source of news uncensored by the Iranian authorities. BBC journalists have been subjected to state harassment, cyberattacks and asset freezes, and their family members in Iran have been threatened, arrested and interrogated by state intelligence and security agencies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStatements by the official judiciary news agency that call for BBC members to be \u2018punished for their actions\u2019 poses a direct threat to these journalists and amount to state-sanctioned vigilante violence,\u201d said Ghaemi.<\/span><\/p>\n

For interviews, contact:<\/span>
\nHadi Ghaemi<\/span>
\n+1-917-669-5996<\/span>
\nhadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Visit our website:\u00a0www.iranhumanrights.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 10, 2018\u2014The inflammatory statements against the BBC that were published on August 7, 2018 by the Mizan News Agency, which functions as the official news website of the Iranian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[368],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-bbc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1287,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1286\/revisions\/1287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}