Iran targets BBC Persian service by jamming signals and harassing staff

Staff at the BBC's Persian service face satellite jamming, smear campaigns and intimidation, says Peter Horrocks, director of the BBC World Service.

In an article for Index on Censorship, he reveals that Iran's interference with the BBC's signals started in 2009 at the time of Iran's presidential election.

Jamming began on election day and continued in the aftermath of the election during the street protests.

Since then, he writes, the jamming of BBC Persian has continued intermittently. Two weeks ago, on 9 February, during the Iranian government's anniversary celebrations of the Islamic Revolution, Persian TV was taken off the air in company with 13 other broadcasters.

Horrocks writes: "In response, we have increased the number of satellites carrying the channel and technical changes were made to help reduce jamming on the original signal. However, more work needs to be done."

He calls for "all stakeholders" in their different fields - technical, regulatory and political - to work together to address the issue of satellite jamming.

He pointed to one "very useful event" in January, organised by the satellite operator Eutelsat, in which it demonstrated how it locates interference to satellites in order to provide evidence to the UN agency, International Telecommunication Union.

And he praises Eutelsat for its decision to "invest in technologies that identify sources of deliberate interference and make jamming more difficult."

As he also points out, the Iranian government has used other tactics to restrict the free flow of information to its people. BBC Persian staff and their families have been subject to increasing harassment and intimidation.

This has been accompanied by a widespread anti-BBC campaign in Iran, as The Guardian reported last month. Fake Facebook pages and fake blogs have been set up and then attributed to BBC Persian journalists in order to discredit them by accusing them of sexual promiscuity or acting as spies.

Sources: Index on Censorship/The Guardian