The business park where Iran International has editorial premises and a studio has turned into a fortress. What was previously a favorite free area, as well as a workplace for 10,000 people, is now guarded by armored police cars and armed police 24 hours a day. Metal frames, barriers, concrete barriers and fences went up overnight in what is being described as one of the biggest anti-terror operations British police have launched against a private organisation. Aliasghar Ramezanpoor is a news editor at Iran International in London. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news Two of Iran International’s journalists have been threatened with death by Iran, says news editor Aliasghar Ramezanpoor. He believes Iran’s regime wants to silence the TV channel. – The London police have made us aware of threats against us, says Ramezanpoor. He welcomes news in the newsroom in west London. From here they send uncensored news about Iran to Iran. Recently, the broadcasts have been heavily influenced by the demonstrations across Iran and the brutal way the security forces have put them down. The threatened journalists of Iran International are protected by police in armored vehicles at work. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news According to the UN, at least 14,000 people have been arrested in the demonstrations. Over 300 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard itself. Both demonstrators and security personnel are among those killed. Iranian state media claim that Iran International is owned by a Saudi businessman and that Saudi Arabia is behind the TV channel. Iran International denies that the Saudi state is in any way involved. The threats are taken very seriously There is little doubt that the police in London take the threats against the British-Iranian journalists seriously. Metal frames, barriers, concrete barriers and fences were installed overnight in the business park where the threatened Iran International is based. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news – We learned from the police that there is a specific and immediate danger, confirms Ramezanpoor. Iran is said to have tried to kidnap or kill ten people in Britain in the past ten months, according to British intelligence. There must be journalists, editors and activists. – Do you think that Iranian authorities or murderous forces could actually come to the UK to kidnap or kill? – Yes – yes. We can say that it is a kind of murder squad. The information we get from the London police shows that such a group has been active here in Great Britain in order to do things, says the news editor seriously. news has asked the Iranian embassy in London for a comment on these allegations. They have not answered us whether Iran has threatened journalists in London, or whether there is a murderous group on British soil. The police take death threats seriously. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news Despite the threats, the nearly 200 employees of Iran International are trying to do their jobs as normal. It consists, among other things, of receiving reports about what is happening in Iran, and verifying the content of sometimes brutal videos. Uncensored news In one of the videos the news editor shows us, we see a young girl being beaten by security forces in a dark and quiet street somewhere in Iran. Another shows a 14-year-old boy in a hospital bed. He shows off his bandaged back, and says that he was shot by security forces on his way home from work. In a third video, a young musician plays the guitar and sings. His eyes are patched up again. He is said to have lost his sight after being shot in both eyes. Iran International broadcasts from London. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news TV channel Iran International reaches one in three Iranians every day, according to a survey carried out this autumn. It is thus the most important source of uncensored news in Iran. It is considered such a big threat that the TV channel’s presenters are wanted as terrorists in Tehran. – Here is our talk show presenter, here is the radio producer and presenter. Aliasghar Ramezanpoor shows us a picture of a poster at an intersection in Tehran. Five of the TV channel’s profiles are pictured. Underneath it says that they are wanted. – But without a shot prize, adds Ramezanpoor’s colleague Adam Bailie. A little gallows humor must be allowed. Five of Iran International’s presenters are wanted as terrorists on this poster in a street in Tehran. Photo: Privat/Iran International A turning point for Iran? – We need help. The Iranian government is a dictatorship, says a woman news meets in an Iranian business in Finchley, London’s “Little Iran”. Britain has a significant Iranian-British population, who follow closely what is happening in the country they have roots in. They have family and friends there, and are very concerned about the brutal developments. Many of London’s Iranians live in and characterize Finchley, which was once Margaret Thatcher’s constituency. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news news asks one of the shop’s customers if she feels safe in London. – For now, yes. But many from the Iranian regime are coming to the UK, and who knows what they are capable of, Ellie Najian replies. Still, it gives her hope that the Iranian people don’t seem to be giving up this time. The demonstrations have now been going on for over two months. For every person who is arrested, new ones take to the streets and protest, she explains. It makes her believe that she will soon be able to bring her children to her home country for the very first time. – By the Persian New Year we can go home and be happy, she smiles. She believes the regime will have fallen by the end of March.
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Iranian murder groups threaten journalists in Great Britain – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
