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Relatives of BBC staff in London detained and threatened by intelligence agents and one employee interrogated online
Iran is carrying out a campaign of intimidation and smears against the BBC's Persian TV service, watched by millions of people in the Islamic Republic but loathed by the government in Tehran.
In recent incidents, relatives of BBC staff in London have been detained and threatened by Iranian intelligence agents, top presenters targeted by malicious rumours and one employee subjected to an online interrogation in London after a family member in Iran was jailed. Iran is thought to be preparing a documentary film discrediting the channel in the runup to parliamentary elections next month.
Sadeq Saba, the head of BBC Persian, was accused live on air by an unknown caller of raping Pooneh Ghoddoosi, then presenter of popular Persian-language talk show Your Turn. Both insist the charge is entirely without foundation but it has since been repeated as fact by leading Iranian government media outlets.
Iran has repeatedly jammed BBC Persian TV since it was founded in 2009. The latest bout of harassment comes against a background of sharply deteriorating relations between the UK and Iranian governments. Last November Britain shut its Tehran embassy after it was stormed by demonstrators in apparent retaliation for sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear programme. Iran's London embassy was then ordered closed.
Tensions worsened in recent weeks after the closure of Press TV, the English-language Iranian state broadcaster, in London. The UK regulator, Ofcom, revoked its licence for breaching the Communications Act. BBC Persian staff say they believe Tehran wants to stop the channel covering the elections on 2 March.
Following weeks of angry internal debate about how to handle the issue, Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, on Friday issued a strongly worded complaint about "disturbing new tactics" and called on the Iranian government "to repudiate the actions of its officials".
Anonymous callers or others using names such as the Cyber Army of Allah have accused BBC Persian staff of being drug dealers, converting to Bahaism or Chrstianity – potentially a capital offence in Iran as it is considered to be apostasy – or taking bribes. "We are well trained to cut these people off when they say rude or libellous things," said Ghoddoosi, whose image has been used in pornographic montages posted on the internet. "They use F-words and C-words non-stop."
Saba said: "Even Stalin or other dictators never did what the Iranian regime is doing with this campaign of intimidation against our journalists. Iran has arrested a group of people and forced them to confess that they have worked for BBC Persian. We have not hired anyone in the country and we condemn these brutal actions."
Journalists arrested recently include Marzieh Rasouli and Parastoo Dokouhaki. Friends believe they are under pressure to confess on camera that they have been collaborating with BBC Persian in Iran.
Saba and Ghoddoosi are popular in Iran, despite the profound official hostility to the BBC channel. The channel is considered such a threat that someone has created a website identical in design to that of BBC Persian to spread allegations against BBC employees. The fake site uses an .ir domain name, which requires government permission.
BBC Persian's reporting has challenged government versions of both the domestic political scene and Iran's troubled relationship with the west. Iranian officials often cite BBC Persian's work as evidence of a foreign plot against the clerical regime. Saba says one news programme is watched by 12 million to 15 million people per week.
Tehran was furious with the BBC's extensive coverage of the disputed 2009 presidential election, which gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term. During the unrest that followed, BBC Persian conducted hundreds of telephone interviews with protesters who described deaths, injuries and arrests by security forces. The BBC's correspondent was expelled. Last year the BBC secured Iranian agreement to deploy a new resident correspondent, but it has never been implemented.
Last month security forces raided the home of a BBC Persian employee's relative in Tehran, searched and confiscated their belongings and transferred the person to Evin prison. Hours later, a man claiming to be the relative's interrogator at Evin contacted the employee in London, seeking information about the BBC in return for the family member's freedom.
"My brother and mother have both been subject to interrogations in the past two years," said a colleague. "My brother's personal belongings, including his computer, were confiscated. They were asked to persuade me to collaborate and gather information from the BBC."
Fifty-two BBC Persian staff complained this week about the corporation's handling of the issue, calling it "scandalous" that Iranian intelligence was able to interrogate a BBC employee in London. Thompson's statement followed. "This issue is wider than the BBC – other international media face similar challenges," he said. "But it is behaviour that all people who believe in free and independent media should be deeply concerned about."
Initially, BBC staff believed it was best to simply ignore the Iranian campaign. "I and others have received death threats," said Ghoddoosi. "They say 'you are a servant of the imperialist English government. We will kill you like dogs and crush your bones.'
"Virtual harassment is tolerable – being called a whore or whatever. We dismissed it by saying silence was the right answer. But when it came to the point of our relatives getting arrested at airports and having their passports confiscated, or Iranian intelligence being so brazen that they interrogated someone on British soil, we finally decided to speak out."
Neil Hyde, 32, has signed contract that police hope will convict the killers of Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan
A man who had been accused of murdering the only reporter killed covering the Northern Ireland Troubles and their aftermath has been jailed for three years.
Neil Hyde, from Lurgan, Armagh, received a lesser sentence after signing a contract which the police hope will convict the killers of the Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan.
Hyde, 32, secured a deal with the authorities in return for a shorter sentence related to 48 offences linked to the outlawed Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), of which he was a member.
O'Hagan, 51, was shot dead in front of his wife as they walked home in Lurgan in September 2001.
The killing was claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, a cover name used by both the LVF and Ulster Defence Association.
During Hyde's trial, the court heard that while he was being questioned by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's retrospective murder review unit in September 2008, he confessed to a number of offences and formally agreed to help police early in 2009.
He admitted six charges relating to petrol bombs, nine of affray, dealing cannabis and cocaine, five relating to arson, seven firearms offences, two charges of withholding information in relation to a murder and a wounding.
He also pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted robbery, aggravated burglary, causing actual bodily harm and managing a meeting in support of the LVF.
All the offences occurred on various dates between 1 January 1992 and 24 January 2008.
The court also heard that Hyde told police of the other people connected to the LVF who he said were involved in O'Hagan's murder.
The murdered reporter specialised in revealing the details of loyalist terrorist murders and operations, particularly in the so-called murder triangle of North Armagh during the Troubles.
Before his death in 2001, O'Hagan had spent several years living in the Irish Republic following a string of death threats and murder bids by loyalist terror groups.
Detective in charge of phone-hacking investigation to give evidence, while Times and Sun editors will return
The Metropolitan police commissioner in charge of three major investigations into alleged illegal activity by newspapers will give evidence to the Leveson inquiry next week along with Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre.
Also scheduled to appear next week is Ian Edmondson, the former News of the World newsdesk executive, one of the first people arrested and bailed by police in April 2011 by Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard investigation into alleged phone hacking at the News of the World.
Edmondson is one of the witnesses confirmed on Friday for the final week of the inquiry's first module, before it takes a two-week break.
Returning next week for their second witness appearances are the editors of the Times and the Sun, James Harding and Dominic Mohan. Also expected to appear are the former head of the PCC, Baroness Buscombe, the bosses of celebrity picture agencies.
Sue Akers, a detective assistant commissioner at the Met, is expected to give Lord Justice Leveson an update on Operation Weeting. The Met launched the investigation into phone hacking in January 2011 in response to criticism that the police had failed to take the original allegations about widespread wrongdoing at the News of the World seriously.
Akers is also likely to update the inquiry on Operation Elveden, the Scotland Yard investigation into illegal payments by the press to police, and Operating Tuleta, into computer hacking by or on behalf of newspapers.
Last weekend more than 50 officers working for Operation Elveden arrested four current and former Sun journalists and took evidence away from the paper's Wapping office.
Dacre, widely seen as one of the most successful and powerful editors of his generation, who also plays a key role at the Press Complaints Commission, will appear before the inquiry on Monday.
He is unlikely to pull his punches and is expected to offer another powerful defence of tabloid journalism and Associated Newspapers' national titles, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.
At a Leveson inquiry seminar last autumn, Dacre said he "unequivocally condemned phone hacking and payments to police" but criticised the government for responding to the scandal at the NoW by setting up "a judicial inquiry with more powers" than the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war.
He also criticised the panel advising Leveson, describing them as "a panel of experts who, while honourable and distinguished people, don't have the faintest clue how mass-selling newspapers operate".
He is expected to be asked to address criticism by public figures, celebrities and the families of victims of crime who have told Leveson of alleged harassment by Mail reporters and photographers.
On Thursday Baroness Hollins, mother of stab attack victim Abigail Witchalls, cited the Daily Mail as the "worst culprit" in relation to press intrusion, while Hugh Grant launched a savage attack on the Associated titles in relation to their reports on his relationships and the birth of his baby. Grant's former girlfriend Jemima Khan will submit written evidence on Monday.
On Monday the other witnesses include the News of the World's former showbusiness editor, Dan Wootton, and Nick Owens, a reporter for the Sunday Mirror.
The following day the inquiry will hear from Harding, who is expected to be asked, briefly, about alleged computer hacking by a former reporter on the paper. Mohan will appear the same day, as will Gary Morgan the founder of the Splash picture agency in Los Angeles, and executives from Twitter, Yahoo and Bing.
Also appearing on Tuesday is Baroness Buscombe, the former chair of the PCC, who dismissed allegations that phone hacking was rife at the News of the World in a report it published in 2009. She has since said she was "misled by News International".
On Wednesday the inquiry will hear from the Huffington Post, the Media Standards Trust and Paul Staines, who is better known as political blogger Guido Fawkes.
PR Max Clifford is also appearing on Thursday, as is Darryn Lyons from London photo agency Big Pictures.
The inquiry will also hear on Thursday from the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer.
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NUJ members 'overwhelmingly' back action over below-inflation pay offer of 1.75%
Journalists at Thomson Reuters have voted to strike – for the first time at the news agency in more than 25 years – over a below-inflation pay offer.
The National Union of Journalists chapel at the company voted "overwhelmingly" for a 48-hour strike next week, to coincide with the release of Thomson Reuters' full-year financial results.
"We tried very hard to reach a settlement with management but the company's refusal to improve its below-inflation offer of 1.75%, which follows years of effective pay cuts, has compelled Thomson Reuters journalists to vote overwhelmingly for strike action for the first time in more than 25 years," said the Thomson Reuters NUJ chapel officers, Mike Roddy and Helen Long.
"Thomson Reuters must shoulder the responsibility for this dispute. The company ignored repeated warnings that members had reached a tipping point, after years of below-inflation pay rises, combined with rising costs, that are pricing many members out of their jobs."
The NUJ said the pay offer had hit journalists whose families cannot afford to live in London.
A ballot for industrial action saw 83% of NUJ members at Thomson Reuters voting in favour and the strike is scheduled to begin at midnight on Thursday 9 February, for 48 hours.
The NUJ claimed that Thomson Reuters was also "under fire" over its treatment of cleaning staff at its Canary Wharf offices.
Barry Fitzpatrick, deputy general secretary of the NUJ, said: "This strike is about fairness. The management is proposing a below-inflation pay deal, while holding back money for a merit scheme.
"This is just not on. While our members struggle to make ends meet on their wages, the management should be putting all the money into an across-the-board pay increase."
NUJ members at the news agency last threatened to strike in 2008 and 2009 over job cuts and working conditions following the merger of Reuters and Thomson.
Stephen Adler, editor-in-chief of Reuters News, said: "We have been informed by the NUJ that approximately 150 of our staff members are being called upon to strike on Thursday 9 February and Friday 10 February. We regret to hear this and have put in place contingency plans to ensure that Reuters continues to deliver the quality journalism that our customers rely on during this period.
"We respect the right of our colleagues to engage in this job action as part of the bargaining process and look forward to welcoming them back to work on their next work day."
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Operation Weeting officers ask former journalists to act as witnesses in investigation into phone hacking
Several former News of the World staff have been called by police in the past few days to see if they are willing to act as witnesses in the investigation into phone hacking.
Former journalists at all levels at the now-defunct News International tabloid, who have had no known involvement in phone hacking, have been asked by officers to give accounts of their time at the News of the World.
Some have been called in the past week by officers from Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police unit responsible for investigating phone hacking, to see if they are willing to give a witness statement.
The former staffers contacted say they have been asked to see the police on a voluntary basis. One of those contacted said they were told that the police were aiming to talk to as many former News of the World journalists as they could.
Another former journalist, who asked not to be named, told MediaGuardian: "I was surprised to get the call from the police but am talking to them about what it will involve."
The Metropolitan police declined to comment.
Last month, News International chief executive Tom Mockridge revealed that the Met had just given the company permission to conduct interviews with News of the World staff.
"The company has been restricted in conducting its own investigation in order to avoid prejudicing the police investigation," he told the Leveson inquiry.
"We have, however, very recently obtained permission from the Metropolitan Police Service for Linklaters to begin its own investigative efforts in relation to the News of the World."
HuffPost Streaming Network, featuring 12 hours' programming for five days a week, described as 'never-ending talkshow'
It is the internet blogs empire that made its exuberant founder a millionaire. Now the Huffington Post is making its first move into TV, with a live online video channel described as a "never-ending talkshow".
Arianna Huffington has announced that the HuffPost Streaming Network will launch in the summer and feature 12 hours of original programming for five days a week.
Roy Sekoff, co-founder of the Huffington Post, described the ambitious video network as CNN meets YouTube and said it would be staffed by about 100 employees.
Huffington announced the plans in a blogpost to mark a year since her punchy politics and opinion website was bought by AOL for $315m (£193m).
"The network will be built around segments spotlighting the biggest, hottest, most engaging stories HuffPost is covering at any given moment and using them as the jumping-off points for conversations, commentary, and comedy," Huffington said.
"These segments will be as long – or as short – as they need to be. We won't be limited by the usual time constraints of TV. Instead, the HuffPost Streaming Network will emulate the online experience."
Huffington said the HuffPo Streaming Network would be "more relaxed, more free-flowing, and much more spontaneous and interactive" than traditional TV.
The internet entrepreneur – who enigmatically described the acquisition by AOL as "1 + 1 = 11" – said the 12 months under AOL had been "amazing". "It turns out that 1 + 1 actually equaled 44. And 54,000,000. And 1,200,000,000," she said.
This referred, respectively, to the number of "verticals" launched since the merger, the number of comments posted on the network last year, and the number of page views in December 2011.
The US Huffington Post network reported 36.2m unique views a month, a 47% rise year on year, according to Huffington.
"Without you, 1 + 1 would still equal 2, instead of 44, and 54,000,000 and 1,200,000,000," Huffington said.
BT Group reports 18% rise in profits and announces plan to roll out 330Mbps broadband on demand to business
BT Group took just over half of the UK's new broadband subscribers in the last three months of 2011 and cheered the City by indicating it would review its fibre broadband investment, with a focus on getting businesses to pay for installation.
The company won a 56% share of new retail broadband subscribers, adding 146,000 customers in the company's third quarter and taking its UK total to 6.1 million. The announcement came as BT chief executive Ian Livingston announced upbeat forecasts for the full year and a rise in third quarter earnings, prompting a 6% share price rise in morning trading.
A spokesman indicated BT would maintain its promised £2.5bn investment in rolling out fibre. But the commitment to running fibre cables to the doorstep of 25% of UK premises by 2014 is likely to be cut, with BT instead offering speeds of up to 330 megabits per second for businesses on demand, so long as they are willing to pay to be connected.
The new 330Mbps service will be available from spring 2013 and is likely to involve installation costs of up to £1,000. It will deliver fibre to workplaces on request in areas where BT already runs fibre to street cabinets.
It is expected to appeal to small businesses rather than residential customers, and is likely to be available to more than 10m premises from launch and about two thirds of UK premises from 2014.
"Fibre to the premises is a significant development for broadband Britain," said Olivia Garfield, chief executive of BT's Openreach division, which resells the BT network to other telecoms companies and BT Retail.
"This will be welcome news for small businesses who may wish to benefit from the competitive advantage that such speeds provide."
A spokesman for BT said of the original commitment to building fibre to 25% of UK premises: "That was only an estimate which we gave some years ago before we knew we could offer fibre on demand. We will have to sit back and review that following these developments."
BT is also doubling the speed of its standard fibre broadband product, from 40Mbps to 80Mbps, from this spring. This will as previously promised be available to two-thirds of the UK by 2014.
The take-up of super-fast broadband increased to 400,000 of BT's retail customers, with 95,000 added in the three months to 31 December.
Elsewhere, Ian Livingston brought forward his target of generating £6bn in annual underlying earnings by 2013 to the end of this financial year. However, BT said its pension deficit ballooned to £4.1bn due to high inflation and the knock-on impact of the government's quantitative easing measures.
Group revenue was £4.8bn for the quarter. Excluding the impact of cuts to mobile termination rates, revenue was down 1.8% in the first nine months, in line to reach BT's target of –2% to flat for the full year, and halting years of revenue slides by the end of next financial year.
Profit before tax was up 18% to £628m for the quarter, while earnings (before interest, tax, depreceiation and amortisation) rose by 3% to £1.5bn in the quarter. Net debt fell 11% to £7.7bn, in line with previous quarters which have seen BT reduce its borrowings by £3.3bn over three years.
There was no news from BT about the early payment some analysts had expected to reduce its yawning pension deficit, which has risen from £1.4bn in March 2011.
The company blamed inflation, saying: "The deficit includes the impact of particularly low real corporate bond yields partly reflecting the impact of quantitative easing and recent inflation being higher than the long term assumptions. This higher inflation will be applied to the annual pension increase in April and has contributed to increased liabilities."
Openreach helped boost BT's overall earnings by increasing revenues by 5% to £1.3bn and earnings by 7% o £591m. Capital expenditure reduced 1% thanks to lower investment in copper broadband as the focus switched to fibre.
BT Global Services, which provides networks to multinational, saw revenues fall 4% to £1.9bn for the quarter, with earnings up 2% to £144m.
Total order intake for the quarter was £1.6bn, after contract wins from Sainsbury's and Standard Life in the UK and Bristol-Myers Squibb and the European Parliament abroad. Orders were up 50% so far this year in Asia Pacific and Latin America.
BT Retail revenue decreased 5% reflecting a decline in calls and lines revenue and lower IT hardware sales. TV service BT Vision added 39,000 to BT Vision net customers in the quarter. Business revenue fell 6% because of lower IT hardware sales "reflecting tougher market conditions".
BT Wholesale revenue fell 8% due to a £64m reduction in transit revenue mainly driven by mobile termination rate cuts. Total order intake was £340m, including a three year extension to a calls contract with Virgin Media and a renewed six year outside broadcasting contract with Sky Sports.
David Molony, analyst at research company Ovum, said: "Openreach is delivering good results on the back of the company's fibre investment. However, the main focus must remain on BT Retail and BT Global Services.
"BT must keep innovating to deliver faster broadband speeds and more enticing bundles for consumers, as well as developing Global Services' capabilities through cloud services, professional services and further regional investment."
Social network revealed in SEC filing that Farmville, CityVille and Mafia Wars maker accounts for up to 12% of total revenue
Shares in the social games firm Zynga have soared after Facebook revealed in its $5bn initial public offering filing that the Farmville maker accounts for up to 12% of its total revenue.
Investor appetite in Zynga peaked in early trading on Thursday, sending the company's shares price soaring 16% to $12.60 – the highest it has been since it went public in December.
Virtual goods, bought through hugely popular Zynga games such as CityVille or Mafia Wars, accounted for 12% ($445m) of Facebook's $3.71bn revenue for 2011, according to documents filed by the social network with the US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, late on Wednesday.
FarmVille, one of the most popular games on Facebook, allows users to harvest a virtual farm by planting and growing crops, trees and livestock. New gamers are given virtual coins to set up their farm, and revenue from matured crops can be used to maintain it. But gamers who are eager to progress can buy extra virtual coins using real cash.
Zynga made its New York stock market debut in December, but expectations failed to live up the hype as the shares enjoyed a brief rise before dropping below their initial pricing of $10 a share.
The company, which claims 60 million people a day play its games, has a market cap of $8.59bn – a fraction of the potential $100bn valuation on Mark Zuckerberg's social network.
Although Zynga has enjoyed huge success on the back of its Facebook games – the four-year-old company reported a net income of $31m in the first nine months of last year – little had been known about its importance to Facebook's fortunes. Facebook revealed on Wednesday that 97% of its total revenue is generated by Zynga or advertising.
"If the use of Zynga games on our Platform declines, if Zynga launches games on or migrates games to competing platforms, or if we fail to maintain good relations with Zynga, we may lose Zynga as a significant Platform developer and our financial results may be adversely affected," Facebook said in its SEC filing.
Facebook said that less than 10% of its total revenue in 2010 and 2009 came from Zynga. Facebook keeps 30% of user payment made through Zynga.
The social network said that social gaming apps built by developers – "particularly Zynga" – generate "substantially all" of its revenue from its payments platform.
BBC1 discussion show host says sexism claims are 'a fantasy'
Question Time host David Dimbleby has hit back at accusations that the BBC1 discussion show features only "token women" on the programme.
Dimbleby said it was a "fantasy that we only have token women."
He was speaking after a BBC-commissioned survey for the Cultural Diversity Network pointed to the lack of older female faces on screen and singled out Question Time and another BBC1 show, Mock the Week, for having "token women" on their panels.
"Taking last week's programme. I checked this, we had exactly the same number of men and women speaking so we go out of our way to try and get that balance right," said Dimbleby, who has presented Question Time for 18 years since succeeding Peter Sissons in 1994.
"And since this season began in September, out of our panels of five, on average two have been women. I'd like it to be two and a half but two have been women so it's a fantasy that we only have token women."
Speaking on Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 2 show on Wednesday, Dimbleby said: "The thing is we reflect public life, that's our job. On the panel we're reflecting public life.
"The cabinet, for instance, has five women out of 29. With MPs, only 22% are women, FTSE 100 directors – 6% are women, so you see we can't create women to put them on Question Time."
The BBC report for the Cultural Diversity Network, Serving All Ages, was published earlier this week just over a year after Countryfile presenter Miriam O'Reilly won a landmark ageism tribunal case against the BBC.
Since the ruling last January, the BBC has been in the spotlight over the number of older female presenters it uses.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries last week criticised Radio 4's Today programme for not using enough women on the show. She also asked why Radio 2 did not have any female daytime presenters.
It prompted Ed Vaizey, the broadcasting minister, to offer to set up a meeting between BBC director general Mark Thompson and MPs, including Dorries, to discuss the under-representation of women at the BBC, both on and off air.
Please God... make them stop
In fairness to Louie, it’s easy to forget the names of the slip-sliding C-listers
Soaps don’t get more watchable than this - must-see torrid TV
Sadly, the fun boy three have run out of new and interesting ways to waste our money
A riveting performance from Polly Walker with a raunchy line in spicing up visiting day
Out of respect for Sir David Jason, let us never mention this debacle again
UK reunion tour tickets go on sale this morning.
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2
Reality show bosses should beware – it looks like Simon Cowell will be on the prowl again to poach some new talent for US X Factor.