Fars News Agency reported that the “colleague at the illegal network BBC, has been arrested in Tehran for spreading lies and disturbing public opinion.”

This is despite the fact that BBC News has many times announced that they do not have any journalists or partnerships in Iran.

The regime-affiliated Fars News Agency said in its report that “security agents arrested Hassan Fathi who in the past days made public statements on a live broadcast on BBC Persian and made Zionist allegations about Iran.”

The regime-affiliated news agency in its report said that since Mr. Fathi gave an interview with BBC Persian this proves that he is cooperating with the foreign news station, and that “based on this information it is evident that he is an official reporter working for this illegal network.”

Fars News Agency in its report said that according to “informed sources” who were not named, Hassan Fathi’s “partnership with BBC has been going on for a long time and [the charges against him] are not just related to this recent interview.”

As a reminder, in September of this year five other documentary directors were arrested in Tehran based on the same allegations and they have all been released.

Article in Persian: http://www.rahana.org/archives/45989