HMR0023 - Evidence on The FCO’s human rights work

Written evidence from BBC World Service (HMR0023)

Contents:

Summary

Introduction

Persecution of BBC Persian staff and their families by the Iranian authorities

Regional round-up - other incidences of interference

What are we doing – Journalists’ safety, distribution issues, internet blocking and working with the Foreign Office

Summary

The work of the BBC World Service in its mission to provide accurate impartial and independent news and programming – a basic human right - is facing increasing censorship obstacles.
Media freedom around the world is increasingly under threat. Journalists are threatened, imprisoned and sometimes killed for doing their job.
BBC Persian broadcasts on TV, radio and online, reaching an estimated audience of 13m in Iran. BBC Persian radio is the longest-running continuous Persian-language radio programme in the world.
The persecution of BBC Persian staff and their families is a serious and pressing issue for the World Service.
Targeted harassment including cases of the arbitrary arrest and detention of BBC Persian staff’s families, travel bans on family members, ongoing surveillance, and the spread of defamatory news about staff and their families has been ongoing since 2009 but escalated in 2017.
In summer 2017 the Iranian government commenced a criminal investigation into BBC Persian journalists, alleging that their work is a crime against Iran’s national security. This was accompanied by an asset-freezing injunction affecting 152 named individuals.
In October 2017 the BBC World Service filed an urgent appeal with the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, and the then UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, the late Asma Jahangir. The Special Rapporteurs communicated their serious concerns to Iran.
BBC journalists addressed the Human Rights Council in March 2018, for the first time ever, to call upon member states to take action to protect BBC staff and to ensure their ability to report freely.
In Iran’s only formal comment to date concerning the complaints raised about its treatment of BBC Persian by the UN it directly accused the BBC of “dissemination of false information” to justify its criminal investigation and falsely suggested BBC staff are engaging in “destructive activities beyond the media”.
The BBC is grateful that Foreign Office Ministers have raised this matter with the Government of Iran in recent months and stresses the importance that they continue to do so at every opportunity.
There are many other examples where governments, opposition and militant groups interfere or attempt to interfere with the BBC’s journalism.
Most recently, a World Service journalist was killed In Afghanistan in April - he is the fourth BBC member of staff to die in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taleban.
The BBC is working closely with regulators, other international organisations and the FCO to highlight and resolve issues where possible. At a time when media freedom is under threat globally the BBC and the UK is in a strong position to lead the way on work around raising the profile of the issue on the international stage.

Introduction

Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

BBC World Service’s mission is to provide accurate, impartial and independent news and programming of the highest quality and in doing so to contribute to accountability and good governance in developing countries. However, with the growing crackdown around the world on journalism which presents a challenge to those in power, the World Service and other international media organisations are increasingly facing obstacles in their ability to carry out the newsgathering function and to successfully deliver news and information to audiences. This is exacerbated by other challenges including the growth of disinformation, the speedy distribution of ‘fake news’ via digital platforms and media literacy issues.

The tension between the concept of national sovereignty and the desire for the free-flow of information across national borders is increasingly resulting in various forms of censorship ranging from regulatory controls, the intimidation of journalists or blocking of the internet and jamming of broadcasting at least somewhere on the globe.

The persecution of BBC Persian staff and their families by the Iranian authorities which has been ongoing since 2009 is one of the most pressing areas for the BBC where we have been engaging with the FCO, the EU (particularly through the European Parliament) and at the UN Human Rights Council to resolve the situation. This evidence will therefore focus mainly on this important issue but also includes a round-up of countries and regions where the BBC is experiencing problems.

Persecution of BBC Persian staff and their families by the Iranian authorities

BBC World Service has been working together with international legal experts from Doughty Street Chambers and the NUJ to highlight human rights violations affecting BBC Persian staff and their families and has been urging influential figures to raise the issue with the Iranian authorities and on the international stage.

Background

The Iranian government has commenced a criminal investigation against journalists working for the BBC’s Persian Service in London, alleging their work is a crime against Iran’s national security.

This investigation has been accompanied by an asset-freezing injunction preventing 152 named individuals, comprising mainly current and former BBC Persian staff, from buying or selling property inside Iran.

The Iranian authorities have been systematically targeting BBC Persian journalists in the UK, and their families in Iran, since the service launched satellite television in 2009. This recent escalation raises grave concerns about the personal safety and human rights of BBC Persian Service journalists, and has led to an urgent appeal to the UN.

The targeted harassment includes cases of the arbitrary arrest and detention of BBC Persian staff’s families, the confiscation of passports and travel bans on family members leaving Iran to prevent them from seeing their relatives working for the BBC Persian Service, ongoing surveillance, and the spread of fake and defamatory news stories designed to undermine the reputation of BBC Persian staff and their families.

BBC Persian broadcasts news in Persian to Iran and the Persian speaking world from London on TV, radio and online, reaching an estimated audience of 18 million every week. BBC Persian radio, which started in 1940, is the longest-running continuous Persian-language radio programme in the world.

In Iran, the service reached 13 million people in 2017 and is BBC News’ seventh largest market worldwide. The service has won awards for its impartial coverage of critical events in Iran, including from the Association for International Broadcasting for its election coverage in 2009.

Timeline

In July 2017, the Iranian government started criminal investigations into the activities of journalists and other staff working for BBC Persian, alleging their work constituted a crime against Iran’s national security.

In tandem, the Iranian authorities brought an injunction to freeze the assets of 152 named individuals – predominantly current and former BBC Persian staff – preventing them from buying, selling or inheriting property in Iran. The vast majority of those named are also UK nationals.

The injunction was initially set to remain in place until 20 December 2017 when the authorities would determine whether the criminal charges would be brought. However, the injunction continues to apply pending a later decision. There is no indication of when a decision will be taken.

In October 2017, in response to this recent escalation, the BBC World Service filed an urgent appeal with the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, and the then UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, the late Asma Jahangir. The grounds for the appeal were that BBC Persian staff were being targeted because of their work as journalists for the BBC.

The urgent appeal set out that the harassment and arbitrary arrest, and the imposition of measures against journalists such as the criminalisation of their work, restrictions on freedom of movement, financial sanctions and the deprivation of property rights each constitute separate human rights violations.

The two UN Special Rapporteurs in question, David Kaye and Asma Jahangir, said in a joint statement in October 2017: "We are concerned at recent reports that the action has now escalated to direct targeting of family members of BBC Persian staff. The measures are clearly aimed at targeting the BBC and at preventing journalists from continuing their legitimate work with BBC Persian."

On 21 November 2017 the Foreign Secretary responded to a question in the House of Commons about the harassment of BBC Persian staff and their families saying “we have made repeated representations to the Iranians about human rights concerns” and confirmed he would be “happy to take up the issue… in person in the course of his projected visit to Iran in the next few weeks.”

The Foreign Secretary visited Iran on 9/10 December 2017, and in a statement to the House on his return, he said he had raised with Foreign Minister, Mr Zarif, “the official harassment of journalists working for BBC Persian and their families inside Iran”. Foreign Office Minister, Lord Ahmad, confirmed in the House of Lords that Boris Johnson had also raised the issue with Vice-President Salehi.
The Foreign Secretary also tweeted that he had raised BBC Persian with Iran’s Foreign Minister again at a meeting in Brussels on 11 January 2018: “Raised all our Iranian dual-national consular cases and the treatment of BBC Persian with @JZarif – UK continues to press for the observation of human rights and press freedom in Iran.”

In March 2018 the BBC, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Doughty Street Chambers organised a series of events during the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva including a side event at which Jamie Angus, Director of the World Service, called on the Iranian authorities to stop the harassment and discuss any grievances they may have about BBC Persian Service coverage. UN Special Rapporteur, David Kaye, journalist and human rights campaigner, Maziar Bahari, were among the speakers and the UK Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Julian Braithwaite, spoke to the UK’s position.

BBC journalists also addressed the Human Rights Council, for the first time ever, to call upon member states to take action to protect BBC staff and to ensure their ability to report freely.

In her final report to the Council, the late UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Iran, Asma Jahangir wrote about how she was “disturbed” by the stories she heard from BBC Persian staff in London and the level of fear created by the extra-territorial intimidation and persecution by the Iranian authorities.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, in his report to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2018 said: “…individuals working for the Persian Service of the BBC and their families in Iran had been harassed and intimidated by authorities, and threatened if they continued to work for the Service…[UN Special Rapporteurs] issued a statement calling upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to cease all legal action against the BBC staff and their families…”

Iran has failed to respond to the communication from the UN Special Rapporteurs arising from the BBC’s urgent appeal. No response has yet been received by David Kaye. Iran’s first and only formal response to the complaints raised about its treatment of BBC Persian by the UN came in its response to Asma Jahangir’s country report during the Council session. In its response, Iran directly accused the BBC of “dissemination of false information” to justify its criminal investigation of BBC Persian staff and falsely suggested BBC staff are engaging in “destructive activities beyond the media”. However, Iran’s response also stated that the asset freeze injunction was “temporary”.

Iran’s Human Rights Chief, Ardeshir Larijani, confirmed that its accusations of conspiracy against BBC staff and asset freeze were temporary pending an investigation. However it has been almost a year since the BBC Persian staff became aware of these accusations and the asset freeze and there has been no response from the Iranian judiciary.

A large number of BBC Persian staff have appointed an Iranian lawyer to represent them in Iran and to challenge the Iranian action in the Evin prison court where the accusations and asset freeze originated from. As the investigation appears not to have concluded, no formal legal challenge can be made.

Since the UN meeting in March, two new incidents of harassment of family members have arisen.

The BBC is grateful that Foreign Office Ministers have raised this matter with the Government of Iran in recent months and requests that they continue to do so. The BBC also asks that the issue is raised in international fora, such as at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The BBC’s specific asks are:

an immediate end to the harassment of the families of BBC Persian staff, including questioning and detention
the injunction to be lifted immediately
an end to the criminal investigation
an end to the targeting of BBC Persian staff
a request for diplomatic guarantees for the safe travel of UK-based BBC Persian staff to and from Iran for family visits

Regional round-up - other incidences of interference

Region

Issues

Asia

Thailand - primarily legal threats under the powers of the Computer Crimes Act and more broadly overt censorship from the Lese Majeste laws.

China - the BBC Chinese language website has been blocked since 1999 and the English sites are blocked intermittently. World Service English shortwave radio is jammed which as well as affecting audiences in China affects those in surrounding areas like Nepal, northern India, parts of Bhutan and further afield in south-east Asia. However, there was some positive news this year when BBC News Chinese was unblocked briefly for the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Vietnam - BBC News Vietnamese is based in Bangkok and London because it is not able to operate reasonably in Vietnam and access to the website is problematic.

Myanmar - The BBC ended a partnership deal with Myanmar TV (MNTV) in September 2017 over interference following the BBC’s reporting in Burmese on the ethnic strife.

Africa

Nigeria – severe issue re physical security of journalists as a result of a BBC investigation in to the criminality surrounding codeine cough syrup.

Liberia - concern around the security of a freelance reporter following a press conference with the President at which the reporter asked probing questions.

Rwanda - the Kinyarwanda-language service BBC Gahuza was taken off air from BBC FM relays in 2014 following the broadcast of a BBC Two documentary on the Rwandan genocide.

Burundi - two BBC FM relays were taken off air in the run-up to the constitutional referendum in May in 2018.

The physical security of journalists is an issue in most areas of Africa – not all examples are included here due to ongoing sensitivities.

Arab world

Egypt - recent security laws mean that the BBC has to report much of the Islamist driven violence from London. The government recently led an angry campaign against the BBC over reporting of severe human rights abuses and filming permits for accredited journalists were withdrawn in the lead-up to the election campaign.

Gulf region – the World Service is refused anything but highly controlled access.

Libya - the FM relay in Benghazi was taken off the air in 2014 after an armed group raided and occupied the hotel tower where the BBC Arabic FM relay was hosted. Negotiations to resume BBC broadcasts from a different location were halted in March 2018 when a local Libyan commander issued a decree to shut down foreign FM radios.

Near East and Central Asia

Afghanistan - BBC journalists have been coming under increasing threat from militant and criminal groups. The Afghan security services have always offered support but the unstable situation in the country means that journalists are required to change their routines, or in some cases relocate with their families to another area for periods of time.

In a day of violence in April this year, during which journalists seemed to be a particular target, the BBC received the tragic news that BBC Afghan journalist, Ahmad Shah, was shot and killed in Khost . He was in a normally safe area he was familiar with. He is the fourth BBC member of staff to die in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taleban.

Iran - as described above, the Iranian authorities have criminalised working for BBC Persian and run a sophisticated campaign of harassment and intimidation against staff and their families. BBC Persian has no access to Iran and the Iranian authorities prevent news agencies who operate in Iran from supplying video and content to the Persian Service.

In addition, signals of BBC Persian TV are targeted in the form of downlink jamming. Persian TV, along with other privately-owned or foreign Persian-language stations, is routinely jammed during big stories in the country, such as elections or protests. The jamming appears to be focused on specific geographic areas within Iran. BBC Persian’s website has been blocked since 2006. Despite these obstacles the Persian service manages to reach an audience of 13m in Iran each week.

Turkey – greater authoritarianism is affecting mostly Turkish journalists working for the Turkish press. The BBC is largely left to operate freely, although it is often the subject of political campaigns by senior government officials and the pro-government media. The BBC’s TV partnership with NTV ended in 2013 when NTV tried to interfere editorially on coverage of the protests. Since then, independent media in Turkey to a large extent collapsed and there has been no possibility to form a TV partnership with anybody else.

Uzbekistan - the BBC Uzbek service is available only on 3G mobile networks as opposed to broadband connections, where they are blocked. In February 2018, the blocking of BBC Uzbek was lifted briefly following the leadership change in the country.

Russia

Accreditation is very restrictive. Current relations between the UK and Russia and the possibility of Ofcom action against RT mean the BBC is highly scrutinised and will suffer reciprocal measures should Ofcom act. BBC journalists suffer occasional physical intimidation but the main means of restricting the BBC’s activities are regulatory and administrative.

Latin America

Mexico – after Iraq and Philippines, Mexico is the country where most journalists are killed, many of them caught up in the war on drugs. Freedom of the press has suffered hugely as a result, often through self-censorship. There are large areas of the country known as ‘silent zones’ because no-one dares to report from there.

What are we doing?

Journalists’ safety - The BBC has a large network of journalists, many locally based, who take risks every day to bring truth to people and to hold authority to account. It takes the safety of its journalists very seriously and has committed to leadership in the protection of all journalists all over the world. It has an in-house High Risk team who ensure staff assigned to work in hostile environments complete appropriate training and works alongside other organisations to raise the profile of issues around the safety of journalists.

Distribution issues - Since 2010, the BBC World Service has been working alongside other international public broadcasting organisations to combat deliberate interference to satellite broadcasting. This has involved working in technical, regulatory and political environments and we have seen a steady and positive change in the way this issue is being addressed. In 2014, at the International Telecommunications Union [1] Plenipotentiary (PP-14), a Resolution [2] was approved which provides a framework for ongoing ITU activity around the issue. The BBC is grateful for invaluable support and advice provided by Ofcom, FCO, DCMS and the UK Space Agency.

The World Service also works with its contractor, Babcock International, to find a technical solution to mitigate the problem of downlink interference.

The BBC has been pursuing different tactics to address the problem of shortwave jamming. These include the addition of extra frequencies and the rotation of frequencies so as to allow listeners to receive the BBC signal by re-tuning their radios. After discussions with Ofcom, the UK is now considering escalating the issue at the ITU in light of the continued contravention of ITU Radio Regulations by China.

Internet blocking - In 2016 and 2017, the BBC World Service expanded the number of its languages from 29 to 41 (excluding English) following additional funding from the Government. The bulk of this expansion focused on creating internet and social media outlets (while some others included TV as well as radio offering). Whilst the internet is not subject to the same degree of regulation as other distribution platforms, since 1999, denied access, blocking and filtering of content have increased.

From a regulatory point of view, internet censorship is not a clear-cut case. Access to the free internet was considered by the UN a right that should be protected (UNHRC/32/L.20, June 2016). But this did not produce a measurable positive outcome. Governments, such as China, Russia and Iran, continue to support the notion of sovereign internet domains.

In light of the absence of any regulatory or political solution, the BBC has resorted to focusing on the technical solutions available and equipping journalists with skills and know-how to address online censorship. The BBC World Service engages in the sponsorship of internet circumvention tools to unblock its websites and supports the development of new technologies or approaches that can support internet freedom separately and in cooperation with other international broadcasters within the framework of the DG5/DG7 [3] grouping.

Working with the Foreign Office - BBC World Service works closely with the Foreign Office on areas of mutual interest whilst scrupulously guarding the BBC’s independence. As part of ongoing engagement with the Foreign Office following the World Service’s move to Licence Fee funding, the FCO agreed to continue to assist in resolving challenges to the work of the World Service, such as jamming of broadcasts, blocking of digital content, threats to journalists and visa restrictions.

As well as assisting through representations by Government Ministers, FCO country officers offer advice and assistance. For example in Rwanda, following the demonstrations in Kigali in 2014 around the BBC2 documentary and subsequent action against the BBC by the Rwanda government, the FCO kept the BBC informed of government actions and offered advice on the safety of BBC staff working on the ground.

June 2018

[1] The International Telecommunications Union is the UN agency which looks after international telecommunications.

[2] RESOLUTION 186 (BUSAN, 2014) - Strengthening the role of ITU with regard to transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space activities

[3] DG5/DG7 stands for “Director General 5/7”. It is a coordination group of the major international broadcasters such as the BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, France Medias Monde and others.