UK summons Iranian diplomat over threats to journalists

Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly summoned Iran’s top diplomat in London after a series of “serious threats against journalists” living in the UK, after weeks of anti-regime protests.

“I summoned the Iranian representative today to make it clear that we do not tolerate threats to life and intimidation of any kind towards journalists or anyone living in the UK,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement on Friday, November 11.

“The Iranian regime responded to the widespread internal protests by suppressing freedom of expression and targeting media outlets operating in Iran,” he added, adding that more than 40 journalists were arrested and detained.

This move comes after Volant Media, the parent company of the London-based Persian-language Iran International News Channel, said that two of its British-Iranian journalists working in Britain had received “death threats from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”.

Meanwhile, Iran’s intelligence minister called Iran International a “terrorist organization”. He warned that any kind of contact with the media “will be considered tantamount to entering the field of terrorism and threatening national security”.

A wave of protests has rocked Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, in September, while in the custody of the morality police in Tehran. The largely peaceful demonstrations led to a violent crackdown in which security forces killed more than 300 people. Thousands of people have been arrested or detained, including dozens of journalists.