The Guardian:

By Michael Savage Media editor

Exiled Iranian journalists working for the BBC have been warned their movements are being closely monitored by the state, as they said their families in Iran were being interrogated and persecuted for their reporting.

Journalists said family members had been threatened with arrest and the seizure of their assets unless their loved ones stopped reporting on Iranian unrest.

The Guardian has been told of instances in which the parents of journalists had been warned that Iran’s security forces knew where and when they worked, as well as the position of their desk in the newsroom.

Staff working for BBC Persian, which reaches 30 million people a week, said the pressure had continued following the unrest that led to tens of thousands of deaths. There are calls for an independent inquiry into the number of people killed.

Journalists have been told they remain targets for the Iranian security services, despite being on UK soil. Some are taking extra security measures after receiving credible death and kidnapping threats.

Others have already been forced to quit because of the financial pressures placed on their relatives.

One journalist, who spoke anonymously out of fear that being named would place “more pressure on my family”, said their father had been detained and warned by security forces that they were monitoring overseas journalists.

“They knew everything about me somehow,” the journalist said. “They said they know where I live. They even gave my father the address, the telephone number, where I’m sitting exactly in the newsroom.

“They knew which programme exactly that I was with and they said ‘we are not really happy with this programme’.” They said their family had been warned that London was not safe.

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