On March 29, Iran International television presenter Pouria Zeraati was walking the short distance between his front door and car in Wimbledon when a man approached him and asked for £3.
Zeraati survived the attack , which he sees as a warning – not just to him over his critical reporting of the Iranian regime, but to the hundreds of other Persian-language journalists who have become the target of attempted assassinations, stalking, harassment, threats and intimidation by Iran, its proxies and supporters.
Journalists suspect that many more incidents have links to Iran that were never proved, with harrowing testimonies given to a new report by press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, including a 2005 incident in which a female reporter found a man waiting inside her home.
She was let go by the assailant, who stole her car and disappeared. A member of an eastern European criminal gang later confessed to the break-in, and although she believed Iranian authorities had ordered the attack a link could not be proved.
The report says that using hired criminals to do its bidding "is a known Iranian tactic, obfuscating the direct line to Tehran".
But the Iranian government has made no secret of its attempts to sanction and shut down foreign-based news outlets, and in 2022 intelligence minister Ismail Khatib said Britain would "pay for its actions" by hosting them.
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