The BBC has sent a new complaint about Iran to the United Nations after women journalists allegedly received death threats and were targeted with smears about their private lives.
Women working for the BBC’s Persian service reported a series of incidents of online harassment including one presenter whose picture was digitally manipulated to appear on a pornographic image that was sent to her 14-year-old son in London.
Other harassment included a fake story about a presenter being raped by a colleague and an invented blog in the name of another presenter giving salacious details of her love life in London that was picked up by an Iranian newspaper. Some women staff members had been threatened online with rape, it said.
“We absolutely deplore the violent, misogynistic and gendered harassment our women journalists have to face every day,” said Liliane Landor, senior controller of BBC International News.
The British broadcaster said that its staff had removed their profiles from social media and suffered significant mental trauma as a result of the harassment.
The BBC said the attacks had featured in state media and included false stories about their private lives, their relationships with contributors and criticisms of their clothing, as part of attempts to discredit the women.
Personal information had been retrieved by hacking or phishing — whereby someone is tricked into divulging personal data — which later appeared online and was used during the interrogation of family members in Iran, the BBC said.
The appeal to the UN calls on Iran to prosecute those responsible for the online threats. Lawyers for the corporation said Iran had international obligations to take action against them.
Paul Siegert, of the National Union of Journalists, said more had to be done to tackle the “appalling online abuse”.
“Iran must do more to stop and prosecute the people responsible. It’s truly chilling when you hear about some of the threats that women journalists are exposed to on a regular basis,” he said.
The complaint is just the latest made to the UN by the BBC since 2017 following intimidation and harassment that dates back to the start of BBC News Persian TV in 2009.
Tehran has frozen the assets of BBC staff in Iran and its London-based staff cannot return because of the risk of arrest and prosecution. BBC's Persian service has no staff in Iran.
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Find the right policy for you
Don’t wait until the week you fly to sign up for insurance – get it when you book your trip. Insurance covers you for cancellation and anything else that can go wrong before you leave.
Some insurers, such as World Nomads, allow you to book once you are travelling – but, as Mr Mohammed found out, pre-existing medical conditions are not covered.
Check your credit card before booking insurance to see if you have any travel insurance as a benefit – most UAE banks, such as Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, have cards that throw in insurance as part of their package. But read the fine print – they may only cover emergencies while you’re travelling, not cancellation before a trip.
Pre-existing medical conditions such as a heart condition, diabetes, epilepsy and even asthma may not be included as standard. Again, check the terms, exclusions and limitations of any insurance carefully.
If you want trip cancellation or curtailment, baggage loss or delay covered, you may need a higher-grade plan, says Ambareen Musa of Souqalmal.com. Decide how much coverage you need for emergency medical expenses or personal liability. Premium insurance packages give up to $1 million (Dh3.7m) in each category, Ms Musa adds.
Don’t wait for days to call your insurer if you need to make a claim. You may be required to notify them within 72 hours. Gather together all receipts, emails and reports to prove that you paid for something, that you didn’t use it and that you did not get reimbursed.
Finally, consider optional extras you may need, says Sarah Pickford of Travel Counsellors, such as a winter sports holiday. Also ensure all individuals can travel independently on that cover, she adds. And remember: “Cheap isn’t necessarily best.”
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
