Complaint
This programme looked at Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals detained and imprisoned in Iran. Two viewers complained it failed to properly investigate the grounds for Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s arrest, detention and prosecution, thus showing bias against the Iranian authorities, and that she and others in a similar position should not have been referred to as “hostages”. The ECU considered whether the programme met the BBC Guidelines on Impartiality.
Outcome
The ECU noted the complainant’s objection to the suggestion that Ms Zaghari-Radcliffe had been used as a bargaining chip by the Iranians but considered the programme had gone no further than the known facts about her case. Ms Zaghari-Radcliffe was not made aware of the charges or evidence against her until she was found guilty in court in 2016. In 2017 the Prosecutor-General in Tehran inaccurately stated that Ms Zaghari-Ratclife was imprisoned because she ran “a BBC Persian online journalism course which was aimed at recruiting and training people to spread propaganda against Iran”. It was a matter of record that she was released after she had been sentenced to another year in prison on new charges, once an arrangement had been made for the British government to return £400m to the government of Iran. Two other prisoners were released at the same time. In the ECU’s judgement, viewers would have understood that the term “hostages” in this context referred to the apparent status and accidental role of these people in the longstanding negotiations between the UK and Iran over reparations and embargos on the export of oil.
Not Upheld
