Iran expels BBC correspondent for 'distorting news reports'

"Jon Leyne will have to leave Iran within the course of the next 24 hours", Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

Iranian officials have accused Leyne of "dispatching fabricated news and reports, ignoring neutrality in news, supporting rioters and trampling the Iranian nation's rights", the report added.

“If various British radio and television networks continue to interfere in our country’s domestic affairs by broadcasting fake and incorrect reports of Iran or ignoring international journalism ethics, there will be more stern action taken,” the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said.

Iranian officials see Western countries particularly Britain behind the unrest which erupted in the country after the presidential elections in June. They have over the past week increasingly suggested that foreign media played a role in the unrest. Last Tuesday, Iran placed foreign media under restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

The Foreign Ministry said that the BBC and Voice of America were “mouthpieces” for their governments, and accused them of “engineering” the riots. The move came only two days after the BBC announced that it had increased the number of satellites carrying its Farsi-language television service because of Iran’s attempts to block it.