Two Canadian journalists who work for the UK-based broadcaster Iran International received death threats from Iranian authorities, who said that they and their families would be killed if they continued to work for the publication.
The two Canadian journalists were among 45 Iran International staffers and 315 family members threatened this year by Iranian authorities, the publication’s lawyers wrote in a statement. According to the publication, the threats were sent by the country’s Ministry of Intelligence, and included deadlines at the end of July 2025 for the journalists to stop working with the publication.
The publication has not identified the Canadian journalists. One received detailed threats which described “being put in a bag and taken out of the country,” a spokesperson for the publication told the Globe and Mail. The spokesperson said that the second journalist’s family members in Iran had also been summoned for questioning by authorities.
The recent threats named specific family members, according to the publication. “They’re told, ‘you tell them to give up their job with Iran International by 30th of July, or you’re dead, they’re dead, and your brother, who lives in Turkey, is dead,’” a lawyer acting for the publication told the Globe.
Iran International and its staff have faced repeated threats from Iranian authorities for their reporting. The government designated the publication as a terrorist organization in 2022 for its reporting on protests in Iran after the killing of Mahsa Amini, who died after being beaten by police in Tehran.
In 2024, a UK-based Iran International journalist was stabbed outside his home in London. Iranian authorities were reportedly behind a foiled 2023 plan to stab two more of the publication’s journalists outside their London bureau.
In 2022, police were stationed outside the bureau after specific threats against two journalists; in 2023, after continued threats, the bureau temporarily closed and moved to the U.S. before re-opening in London in a new high-security office.