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Peter Horrocks says Tehran has intensified blocking of Persian TV channel, and arrested staff's relatives and friends.
The BBC's head of global news has called on the UK government to rebuke Iran after relatives of 10 of the corporation's staff were arrested or intimidated following a documentary about the country's supreme leader.

Peter Horrocks claimed on Wednesday that Iran was responsible for a "dramatic increase in anti-BBC rhetoric" and that attempts to intimidate the corporation had reached new levels since mid-September, when the BBC aired a documentary on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a post on the BBC's Editors' blog, Horrocks said that Tehran had intensified its blocking of the corporation's Persian TV channel, and that 16 people connected to the corporation have been arrested.

"Iranian police and officials have been arresting, questioning and intimidating the relatives of BBC staff. We believe that the relatives and friends of around 10 BBC staff have been treated this way," said Horrocks.