World
Iran summons British envoy over social media post asking to release journalists
Iran’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Britain’s envoy to Tehran to protest his posts on social media calling for the government to release all people ‘‘arbitrarily detained” in Iran, including journalists, the state-run news agency reported.
The IRNA news agency said British Ambassador Simon Shercliff was summoned for posting on Tuesday what the ministry described as “interfering remarks” on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
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The posting came as Iran marked Journalists Day, commemorating the death of Mohammad Saremi, an Iranian journalist who worked for IRNA, and eight other Iranians killed by the Taliban on Aug. 8, 1998 in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan.
Shercliff noted the commemoration and said: “We pay tribute to all journalists prevented from doing their jobs and facing threats to their safety.”
“We reiterate our call for Iran to release all arbitrarily detained individuals, including journalists,” the British envoy added.
Iran often summons foreign envoys to protest their remarks. There was no immediate comment from the UK Embassy.
Iran has detained nearly 20,000 people during nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody last September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman held by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.
Overall, authorities are known to have detained at least 95 journalists in the wake of the protests following Amini’s death.
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