Iran’s judiciary has announced on Tuesday that it freezes the assets of Iran International staff because of the coverage of the recent protests in Iran.

The judiciary has announced that “key elements of the channel” will face “judicial and legal limitations regarding their assets”.

During the past days, the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence has subjected the families of some of the employees of Iran International to harassment. In a statement in protests against these illegal and inhumane practices, the Iran International TV channel announced that it will file a complaint against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran through international institutions. 

These actions have been carried out by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran while Iran International was providing a live coverage of the recent uprising in Iran. In its statement, Iran International affirms that the goal of the Iranian government is to suppress freedom of expression inside and outside Iran. 

An extract of Iran International’s statement reads: “During the past days, agents of the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic have subjected the families of some of the employees of the TV channel Iran International, in Tehran and in other cities, to harassment. In several instances, they have taken family members from the street or their place of work to the intelligence bureau and pressured them into calling Iran International employees to ask them to immediately cease their collaboration with said channel.

The Iranian government has carried out these actions after Iran International provided an extensive coverage, watched by millions of viewers, of the people’s protests, against a petrol price hike, that took place in the previous week in Iran.

Iran International condemns these immoral, inhumane and illegal actions. The family members of the employees of Iran International are innocent. They have no control over their relatives working for media outlets outside the country and they shouldn’t be taken hostage.

The Iranian government has carried out similar actions before, against Farsi-speaking channels outside of the country. It wasn’t successful then and won’t be this time either.

The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is afraid of freedom of press and carries out these actions to silence the voice of independent media outlets. The Iranian government wants to harshly suppress the people’s protests in the country with no media outlet conveying the words of the Iranian people to the world."

This is not the first time that the Iranian judiciary and security authorities subject journalists of Farsi-speaking media outlets to harassment.

They have previously frozen the assets of the employees of BBC Persian.