UK Lawyers Sound Alarm On Repression Of Iranian Journalists Worldwide
(ANALYSIS) International lawyers from a U.K.-based Doughty Street Chambers and Howard Kennedy raised the dire situation of Iranian journalists globally, with several of them being subjected to serious threats.
According to their statement, over the past six weeks, Iranian authorities have intimidated and threatened 45 journalists and 315 of their family members.
Iranian authorities are said to have threatened to kill these journalists and their relatives unless they stop working for Iran International by specific deadlines, which have all now passed. Iran International is a news platform dedicated to covering events and developments related to Iran, as well as regional and global stories that affect Iranians at home and abroad.
Headquartered in London, with bureaus in Washington, D.C., and around the world, it broadcasts internationally, providing a vital source of news and information to people living in and outside Iran.
Iranian authorities have a long-standing pattern of targeting the Iran International journalists and their families. Since its formation in 2017, Iran International journalists have been targeted by the Iranian authorities in retaliation for their reporting, with assassination and kidnap threats, serious physical assaults, online abuse, harassment and hacking, among others.
Among others, in March 2024, journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed by men believed to be acting for the Tehran regime. In March 2025, two men, believed to be acting for Iran, were convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting an Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad (in July 2022).
Iranian authorities are known to perpetrate transnational repression globally. In a recent report published by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, a committee consisting of members of both Houses of the U.K. Parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords), British parliamentarians raised that, “Tactics reportedly used by Iran include assassination plots, physical attacks, intimidation of family members, asset freezing, judicial proceedings, smear campaigns, online abuse, surveillance and digital attacks such as hacking, doxing30 and impersonation.”
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Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She’s authored the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of genocide and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world. She is on X @EwelinaUO.