Bajnews Under Siege from Security Police and Prosecutor's Office; Economic Activists Express Praise and Support

The Tehran Prosecutor's Office and the Economic Security Police of the Law Enforcement Command (FARAJA) took action against the Bajnews network, which was met with support from economic activists.

According to the reporter of Ambassador Arjan's social service, a group of officials and managers of large economic enterprises of the country praised the recent actions of the Tehran Prosecutor's Office and the Faraja Economic Security Police in identifying and dealing with the organized network known as "Badge News" and its affiliates with spy services and hostile media, and called for the continuation and intensification of this process.

This action has been carried out following official letters and notification of judicial orders. In a letter issued by the Economic Intelligence Deputy - Special Investigations Department of Faraja Economic Security Police, referring to the judicial order in the so-called "Badgenews" case, organizations, companies and affiliated groups were informed to prevent the entry and interference of the persons subject of the case and the contractors introduced by them in the non-public affairs of the institutions and companies.

These restrictions explicitly include direct presence or through representatives and intermediaries in management meetings, public relations and media, access to internal information and documents, introducing contractors, advertising, holding exhibitions and branding, as well as providing the context for concluding a new contract or creating organizational access for the mentioned people.

In the same letter, it is emphasized that all the contractors and companies that have been introduced by the persons who are the subject of the case (directly or through intermediaries) should be identified and their details, including the name of the contractor, ID, name of the introducing person, party to the contract, subject, amount, date of conclusion, status of execution and payments, along with the image of related documents, should be reported to the Special Investigations Department. Even cases where the introduction has been made but the contract has not been concluded must be announced separately. Documents related to introductions, correspondence, meeting minutes, contracts and payments should also be preserved and any changes in them should be avoided.

Another letter issued by the deputy prosecutor and head of the public and revolutionary prosecutor's office of the relevant district addressed to the respected head of Faraja Economic Security Police, referring to the previous letter, emphasized the need for preventive measures regarding the activities of individuals and media networks related to the petrochemical and steel industries.

In this correspondence, it is stated that these industries are among the strategic industries of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the unprecedented publication of the internal information of the mentioned companies in unlicensed channels and virtual pages, or the delivery of organizational information to persons without media positions and qualifications, can provide the possibility of republishing and secondary exploitation of this content for hostile and hostile networks.

Based on this, the identified persons have been banned from attending internal meetings, management meetings, access to contractual information, production plans, holding exhibitions and other non-public areas of petrochemical and steel companies until the final determination of the case. Also, the contractors introduced through these persons should be identified and reported from the CEO of the relevant organization.

The names of 10 people are mentioned in this letter.

Ransomware refers to the organized abuse of media and information tools; A way in which people or groups with the appearance of news or disclosure activity, by threatening to publish negative content, private documents or sensitive information, demand money, concessions or cooperation from managers, companies and institutions. This phenomenon has a clear border with professional investigative journalism: in authentic journalism, the goal is to discover the truth and serve public awareness, but in fake news, information becomes a tool of bargaining and pressure.

Official reports show that this network has carried out extensive extortion by collecting personal and organizational information in strategic areas, and numerous bank accounts and significant properties of its members have been blocked and confiscated.

While appreciating these actions, which included arrests, blocking of bank accounts, confiscation of electronic devices and judicial notices to large companies to prohibit cooperation and access to documents, they emphasized that it is necessary to continue this path and deal more strongly with the elements of the network, in the current sensitive situation of the country.

They have also considered this action as an effective step in protecting economic security, preventing hostile networks from infiltrating strategic industries, and supporting the healthy activity of manufacturing enterprises.