BBC Calls Out Iran for Escalation in Threats to Staff

Iran has ramped up its threats and harassment of journalists working for the BBC’s Persian language service and their families, the British broadcaster says.

In a complaint filed with the United Nations this month, the BBC called on the U.N. and the international community to “condemn Iran for their unacceptable treatment” of its staff.

The complaint cited “extra-territorial threats” against the journalists in Britain and third countries; harassment of family members in Iran; financial pressures on the journalists and their families; and “increased intelligence and counter-intelligence activity aimed at undermining the professional reputation of BBC News Persian and its journalists.”

The problem has been going on for years, said Kasra Naji, BBC Persian special correspondent in London. But he said the threats have recently gotten worse.

“There has been an escalation,” Naji told VOA News. Over the span of six weeks, Iran’s intelligence agency called in several family members of BBC Persian personnel for questioning.

“They told our parents and brothers and sisters that we in London could be the target of kidnapping, or even killing, if we didn’t stop working for the BBC,” Naji said. “They also suggested that we could be kidnapped and renditioned to Iran.”

The agents cited the case of Ruhollah Zam as an example of what would happen if they didn’t comply, Naji said.

Zam, who founded an anti-government news website and Telegram channel while in exile in Paris, was lured to Iraq in 2019, where he had been promised an exclusive interview with a prominent cleric.

Instead, he was forcibly returned to Iran where the Revolutionary Court convicted him of “corruption on Earth” and executed him in December 2020.

In a joint statement, human rights lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Jennifer Robinson, counsel for the BBC World Service, said, “We know from Iran’s past actions that it is willing to take cross-border and deadly action to silence its critics, and that it perceives independent journalism about Iran as a risk to their power.”

Naji says the threats don’t appear to be linked to any particular story and haven’t impacted BBC Persian reporting.

Special Correspondent for BBC Persian TV, Kasra Naji attends a press conference on March 12, 2018 in Geneva.

“We have to report the stories. We have to report the news. We have to say what is happening,” Naji said. “And perhaps that’s the reason why the Iranian government keeps attacking us, because obviously they feel they haven’t managed to have an impact.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

February’s complaint is the third filed against Iran by the BBC in the past five years, Naji said.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights did not return VOA’s requests for comment.

In response to an earlier complaint, U.N. experts in 2020 demanded that Iran end the harassment and called on member states to ensure the safety of journalists.

Legacy of threats

Amir Soltani, activist and author of Zahra’s Paradise, a graphic novel about protests over the 2009 contested elections in Iran, says the Iranian intelligence agency has been targeting individuals since the 1979 revolution.

“From the beginning, many Iranian writers and dissidents were abducted by the Intelligence Ministry and killed,” Soltani told VOA. “Many people disappeared and then their bodies were found in various states of mutilation. This was a campaign of fear and terror against intellectuals, against writers, against dissidents, and quite naturally against journalists.”

The tactics have continued over the past 40 years and are aimed at silencing anyone who speaks critically of the Iranian regime, he said. But while previous attacks were conducted secretly, they have become much more brazen, Soltani said.

Tehran’s repressive media environment means that many journalists work in exile. But living outside of Iran is no guarantee of security.

Transnational repression, in which governments reach across borders to coerce, intimidate, and sometimes harm or even kill citizens, is becoming a widely used tactic by authoritarian regimes, groups including Freedom House have said.

Last year, VOA Persian host and outspoken government critic Masih Alinejad was the target of a kidnapping attempt from her home in New York.

Four Iranians, believed to be intelligence operatives, were charged with conspiracy to abduct Alinejad with the intent of forcibly bringing her to Iran, ostensibly for speaking out about human rights violations.

In 2020, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said at least 200 Iranian journalists living outside of the country had been harassed, including 50 who had received death threats.

BBC Persian staff and their families have endured years of harassment.

In 2012, agents detained several relatives and tried to coerce them into persuading the journalists to either stop working for the BBC or to act as intelligence agents, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Other family members had their passports revoked, preventing them from leaving the country.

And in 2017, Iran charged 152 BBC Persian staff members, including Naji, with “conspiracy against national security.”

The court order, which is still in effect, froze all of their assets and has affected an estimated 600-700 family members, Naji said. The freeze prevents them from selling or dividing properties.

“Some of us think that our parents and our brothers and sisters are effectively hostages in Iran,” Naji told VOA.

Travel bans and sanctions on bank accounts are all too familiar, said Soltani, a U.S.-based human rights activist who left Iran in 1980. These issues have affected many members of society, not just journalists and their family members, he said.

“If you can attack an institution like the BBC, at that level, with impunity and not give a damn about what the repercussions can be, can you imagine what lone journalists and dissidents in Iran are facing?” Soltani asked.

As the BBC calls on the U.N. to condemn Iran for the latest threats, its journalists say they will not be silenced.

“We have all agreed, all of us here at the BBC,” Naji said, “that we have to shout from the rooftops so that everyone knows about this, particularly the Iranian government, that if they touch us, if they take action against us, there will be a cost attached.”

Reporter bio: Carmela Caruso is a freelance reporter based in Asheville, North Carolina, who specializes in press freedom and human rights. She is a student at Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work has appeared in VOA and The Mountain Xpress. Follow @CarmelaMCaruso

US Reduces Embassy Staff, Tells Americans: Get Out of Ukraine

The White House ordered U.S. military trainers out of Ukraine in the same week it reduced embassy personnel there to “bare bones” (minimal). With at least 100-thousand Russian troops encircling Ukraine, Washington says an invasion could be “any day now.” VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the story.

Biden Adviser Lander Resigns After Complaints He Bullied Staff

WASHINGTON – A top science adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden resigned on Monday after allegations came to light that he had bullied and demeaned staffers.

Eric Lander, who serves as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was the focus of an internal review after subordinates complained about his treatment of them. The review was first reported by Politico earlier on Monday and confirmed by White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

“I am devastated that I caused hurt to past and present colleagues by the way in which I have spoken to them,” Lander said in the resignation letter submitted to Biden.

Noting that he sought to push himself and colleagues by at times “challenging and criticizing,” he acknowledged that “things I said, and the way I said them, crossed the line at times into being disrespectful and demeaning.”

The allegations against Lander struck a nerve given Biden came into office pledging to take a hard line on any disrespect among members of his administration and turn the page from the derisive rhetoric of his predecessor Donald Trump.

“If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot … no ifs, ands or buts,” Biden told political appointees during a swearing-in ceremony.

“Everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity,” he said at the time. When asked about the allegations against Lander earlier on Monday, Psaki condemned Lander’s behavior.

“In addition to the full, thorough investigation, it was conveyed through meetings to senior White House officials directly that his behavior was inappropriate,” she said. “Nothing about his behavior is acceptable to anyone here – not at all,” she added.

On Monday evening, Psaki put out a statement saying Biden had accepted Lander’s resignation letter “with gratitude for his work,” citing his role in fighting cancer, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.

Lander said his resignation should be effective no later than February 18.

Top Scientist Mistreated Staff, Apologizes

WASHINGTON — 

A White House review found credible evidence that top scientist Dr. Eric Lander violated its “Safe and Respectful Workplace Policy,” but the administration plans to keep him on the job after giving him counseling.

An internal review last year, prompted by a workplace complaint, found evidence that Lander, the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and science adviser to President Joe Biden, bullied staffers and treated them disrespectfully. That put him at odds with Biden’s day-one directive that he expected “honesty and decency” from all who worked for his administration and would fire anyone who shows disrespect to others “on the spot.”

The White House said senior administration officials had met with Lander about his actions and management of the office. It said Lander and OSTP are required to take certain corrective actions as part of the review.

“White House leadership met with Dr. Lander to discuss the seriousness of the matter and the President’s expectation that all staff interactions be conducted with respect,” the White House said. “We take this incredibly seriously and we are taking swift action to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

The White House said the review did not find “credible evidence” of gender-based discrimination and that the reassignment of the staffer who filed the original complaint was “deemed appropriate.”

On Friday, Lander issued an apology to staffers in his office, acknowledging, “I have spoken to colleagues within OSTP in a disrespectful or demeaning way.”

“I am deeply sorry for my conduct,” he added. “I especially want to apologize to those of you who I treated poorly, or were present at the time.”

Lander, whose position was elevated to Cabinet-rank by Biden, appeared prominently with the president last week when he relaunched his “Cancer Moonshot” program to marshal federal resources behind research and treatment for cancer diseases.

The founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Lander is a mathematician and molecular biologist. He was lead author of the first paper announcing the details of the human genome, the so-called “book of life.”

His confirmation to his role in the Biden administration was delayed for months as senators sought more information about meetings he had with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier who was charged with sex trafficking before his suicide. Lander also was criticized for downplaying the contributions of two Nobel Prize-winning female scientists.

At his confirmation hearing last year, Lander apologized for a 2016 article he wrote that downplayed the work of the female scientists. At the hearing, he also called Epstein “an abhorrent individual. ″

Lander said he “understated the importance of those key advances″ by biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. The two were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The findings against Lander were first reported by Politico.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Yellowstone Park Visits Hit Record in 2021, Straining Staff

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, WYOMING — 

A record number of visitors flocked to Yellowstone National Park last year despite fewer hotel rooms and campsites being available because of the coronavirus pandemic and construction projects.

About 4.86 million visits were tallied in 2021, breaking the prior record set in 2016. It’s a million more people than visited in 2020.

Known worldwide for its wolves, bears and other wildlife and thermal features such as the Old Faithful geyser, Yellowstone will mark its 150th anniversary in 2022. It straddles the borders of northwestern Wyoming, southern Montana and eastern Idaho.

Visits to national parks across the U.S. have been trending up in recent years. Others such as Utah’s Zion National Park also set new visitor records in 2021 as tourism bounced back from the shutdowns imposed during the early days of the pandemic.

At Yellowstone, a rush of people from May through September last year strained employees and park services. It came as the park was understaffed through the summer because of worker housing caps and difficulty recruiting new employees, park officials have said.

There were also 20% fewer campsites and hotel rooms in 2021 compared to previous years. That meant hundreds of thousands of visitors left the park at night and would re-enter after staying elsewhere. Each time they entered the park counted as a separate visit.

Park officials said they are trying to find a way to differentiate between new visits and people who enter the park multiple times on the same trip.

Yellowstone’s road corridors and parking lots can get crowded, but they make up less than one-tenth of 1% of its 8,903 square kilometers (3,400 square miles) — an area about 150 times the size of New York’s Manhattan Island.

Most visitors stay within a half-mile of those roads, according to park officials. Park crowds drop sharply during winter when much of it is inaccessible except by snowmobile or skiing.