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BBC Complains to UN about Iran

The microphone that newsreader Iain Purdon used to deliver the final BBC World Service news bulletin from BBC Bush House is seen in central London July 12, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
The microphone that newsreader Iain Purdon used to deliver the final BBC World Service news bulletin from BBC Bush House is seen in central London July 12, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
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BBC Complains to UN about Iran

The microphone that newsreader Iain Purdon used to deliver the final BBC World Service news bulletin from BBC Bush House is seen in central London July 12, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
The microphone that newsreader Iain Purdon used to deliver the final BBC World Service news bulletin from BBC Bush House is seen in central London July 12, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

The BBC said on Wednesday it had filed an urgent complaint to the United Nations after Iran began a criminal investigation into 152 BBC Persian staff and contributors, accusing them of “conspiracy against national security” in Iran and abroad.

Iran has frozen the assets of BBC Persian staff, meaning they cannot inherit family assets and preventing them and their families from selling assets, such as property or cars, in Iran.

In mid-August, the BBC has called on the Iranian authorities to reverse the new order that appears to effectively freeze the assets of its staff in Iran.

All individuals on the list work, or have worked, for BBC Persian, part of the BBC World Service, Reuters reported.

Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC, said in the statement: “This is not just a campaign against BBC Persian staff but against fundamental human rights, and the BBC calls on the government of Iran to end this legal action immediately.”

Iran accused the BBC of inciting unrest after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. It added that the journalists were broadcasting against the national interests of Tehran.

The following year it banned Iranians from contact with dozens of foreign organisations, including the BBC, which it said were seeking to topple the Iranian regime.

The management of BBC Persian described the court order as another attempt by Iran's judiciary to silence impartial journalists.

The order was issued in July by a prosecutor’s office based in Evin Prison in Tehran and ratified by Iran’s deputy prosecutor-general in August before being announced to all registration offices in the country.

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North Korea Warns of Reprisal Against South Korea-US Drills Despite Signs of Tensions Easing 

A North Korean guard post near the border city of Paju, is seen along with a loudspeaker installation used to blare noise across the border into the South, in this photo taken Aug. 10, 2025. (dpa)
A North Korean guard post near the border city of Paju, is seen along with a loudspeaker installation used to blare noise across the border into the South, in this photo taken Aug. 10, 2025. (dpa)
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North Korea Warns of Reprisal Against South Korea-US Drills Despite Signs of Tensions Easing 

A North Korean guard post near the border city of Paju, is seen along with a loudspeaker installation used to blare noise across the border into the South, in this photo taken Aug. 10, 2025. (dpa)
A North Korean guard post near the border city of Paju, is seen along with a loudspeaker installation used to blare noise across the border into the South, in this photo taken Aug. 10, 2025. (dpa)

North Korea has denounced a major joint exercise planned by the South Korean and US militaries as "direct military provocation" and warned of counteraction, despite signs of easing tension across the border under a new leader in Seoul.

North Korea's Defense Minister No Kwang Chol said its military has an "absolute mission" to defend national security against the large-scale 11-day drills by South Korea and the United States, which he said posed a real and dangerous threat.

"The armed forces of the DPRK will cope with the war drills of the US and the (South) with thoroughgoing and resolute counteraction posture and strictly exercise the sovereign right," No said in a statement issued via the KCNA state news agency on Monday.

DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

No said the drills staged under the pretext of defense against threats were additional proof of the confrontational intent by the two countries that raises hostility and further destabilizes regional security.

North Korea routinely denounces military drills by the South and the United States, having called some previous exercises "a rehearsal" for nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, even as Pyongyang conducted a range of missile tests and live fire artillery exercises.

South Korea and the United States said last week the annual exercise would begin on August 18 to test command control and troop mobilization under an upgraded security strategy against a heightened threat of nuclear warfare by North Korea.

However, the allies said a major part of the field exercise would be postponed and conducted separately next month, citing weather conditions. The postponement was widely seen as prompted by South Korea's liberal President Lee Jae Myung, who won a snap election in June, to ease tension with Pyongyang.

Ties between the rival Koreas had plunged to some of the most hostile points in recent years, as the North pressed on with developing nuclear attack capabilities and dramatically boosted military ties with Russia.

While Pyongyang has publicly rebuffed renewed outreach by Lee and Washington for dialogue, it was making moves seen as reciprocating some South Korean actions to ease tensions.

South Korea said on Saturday it had detected the North's military removing some loudspeakers at the border, days after the South began dismantling similar equipment that had blared propaganda across the border.

North Korea also seemed to have used a more restrained tone in criticisms about the US-South Korea joint exercises, said an official at Seoul's Unification Ministry, which oversees ties between the Koreas.

Pyongyang "appears to focus on expressing its position on the drills, rather than making military threats," ministry spokesperson Koo Byoungsam said at a briefing on Monday.