Iran warns BBC Tehran staff not to help Farsi service

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran on Wednesday warned the BBC Tehran bureau against contributing to the network's newly-launched Farsi-language television channel, which is banned from operating in Iran, Fars news agency reported.

"BBC English channel will be confronted if it abuses its legal rights by producing reports for BBC Persian and we are continually on watch for that," Culture Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi said.

"This Persian channel is not planned with good intentions and they reflect the same issues differently in Persian and English services," said Harandi, whose ministry is in charge of licensing and monitoring foreign media.

He reiterated that the Farsi-language BBC channel is banned from "presence and making field reports in Iran" and warned local journalists against cooperating with it.

"BBC and Britain have a clear record of inciting unrest and provoking different groups against each other in countries," he said, according to the ILNA news agency.

Reacting to the Iranian comments, a BBC spokesman said: "We have a long established bureau in Tehran and we have no plans to change how it is run and operated.

"BBC World Service has launched a separate BBC Persian Service, which we believe will be valued by Persian speakers across the globe," he added.

BBC Persian TV began broadcasting on January 14, aimed at around 100 million Farsi speakers in the region -- 70 million in Iran, 20 million in Afghanistan and 10 million in Tajikistan and central Asia.

The BBC has had a radio service in Farsi since 1940 and has a Farsi-language website used by 700,000 people worldwide, the British public broadcaster said.

The British government is providing 15 million pounds (23 million dollars) a year for the Farsi service.

Despite a ban on satellite television, dishes dot Iranian rooftops with dozens of US and Europe-based Farsi channels -- including the Voice of America Persian service -- broadcasting a daily dose of politics and entertainment to Iran.

International news agencies, a number of foreign television networks and newspapers have correspondents based in Iran.

"News agencies are different from BBC Persian and the issue is a medium launched in our language and focused on Iran," the minister said. "They (BBC Farsi) want to carry out some operations and we should not naively allow them."