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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested the family members of a news anchor working for Iran International, an opposition-aligned Persian-language satellite news channel based in the UK.
The move is seen as an attempt to pressure the journalist into resigning from the network. Her father, mother, and younger brother are reportedly being held in an undisclosed location.
According to the network, the presenter received a phone call from her father on Saturday morning, during which he urged her to quit her job at Iran International. In the background of the call, voices believed to be those of Iranian security agents were heard dictating what he should say. “I’ve asked you a thousand times to resign. What consequences are you expecting? You have to resign,” her father said during the call.
In a statement, an Iran International spokesperson strongly condemned the Iranian regime’s actions, calling the arrests a “horrific act of hostage-taking” aimed at forcing a journalist to resign. “This deplorable tactic highlights the regime’s ongoing, brutal campaign to silence dissent and destroy independent journalism,” the spokesperson said.
This is not the first time Iran International staff have come under pressure. Many of its journalists have faced years of harassment, threats, and constant surveillance. However, the network warned that the current incident marks a dangerous escalation. “Arresting a journalist’s family members, combined with psychological torture, is a calculated and cruel attempt to break our journalists by targeting their loved ones,” the statement read. “This is a blatant violation of international human rights principles and further exposes the disturbing lengths the regime will go to in its efforts to silence the free press and suppress the truth.”
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The spokesperson expressed growing concern that the Islamic Republic has entered a new and more aggressive phase of repression. Individuals associated with independent media or international institutions, the statement warned, could now face the risk of hostage-taking and severe mistreatment.
Iran International called on the United Nations, its member states, international human rights bodies, and media watchdog organizations to condemn what it described as a threatening and unlawful act by the Iranian government and to apply maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic to immediately and unconditionally release the journalist’s detained family members. The network reaffirmed that it will not be silenced or deterred and remains committed to delivering accurate, independent news to the Iranian people.