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Iran's Culture Ministry: We Will Monitor BBC Closely
Iran's Culture Ministry: We Will Monitor BBC Closely
13 August 2015 by Editor

The BBC journalists, who have been allowed to report in Iran for a week's time, arrived in Tehran Thursday morning.

But the reporters will be monitored closely, says Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

 “A group of freelancers from the BBC has received permission to report in Iran for a week, but we and our security system will control and monitor them when they are here,” said Hossein Noushabadi, a spokesman from the Ministry, in an interview with the IRIB.

Iranian authorities stopped the BBC's Persian service from operating in the country in 2009, but are now loosening restrictions on the news organization.

According to Noushabadi, the BBC reporters “won’t report on anything related to Iran's nuclear program. They are allowed to talk to Iranians and report on general issues, but they are not coming to Iran to document or report nuclear activities.”

Iran’s police will monitor the group of journalists closely, he said.

“The team must inform Iran’s police of the details of their work, including where they want to go, who they will speak to and what they will talk to people about. We won’t leave them to themselves.”

He added: “We have never licensed the BBC Persian Service [to operate in Iran] and we won’t do it in future. We have only licensed this BBC team, because they aren’t Americans and they are all freelancers.”

 

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