Iran arrests local TV managers over “BBC links”
January 21, 2016
By Chris Forrester
BBC Monitoring is reporting that Iranian authorities have arrested senior managers at two local satellite TV broadcasters on charges of “unethical activities” and having links to the BBC’s Farsi news channel.
The BBC report quotes Iran’s state-backed Channel One (IRTV-1) as its source, and that the report emanates from the Intelligence Division of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
“Senior managers of two satellite networks, which had unethical activities in the country, have been arrested. These individuals had links with the intelligence services of three European countries and had extensive cooperation with BBC Farsi and GM TV,” quotes BBC Monitoring.
The report said some of the “destructive activities” of the managers were: “Establishing extended networks to transfer Iranian youths abroad and involve them in unethical activities, thus creating an income worth US$850,000, and setting up and managing three corruption companies in one of the regional countries with the turnover of more than $500,000”.
The individuals are also accused of setting up social media links to recruit people and managed more than “forty pages and special profiles in various social media platforms with the aim of creating networks to spread corruption”.