Freelance travel journalist Minty Clinch told the BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme this morning that Barclays had blocked a payment into her bank account because it was for an article about Iran.
Clinch said that the publisher, the Abu Dhabi Media Group, instructed its bank in the Netherlands to pay the amount due for the article directly into her Barclays account but this was blocked, apparently because the invoice contained the word Iran, You & Yours reported.
Clinch wrote another article for Abu Dhabi Media about Scottish golf.
“Abu Dhabi Media sent the payment again,” she said. The payment was blocked and Barclays wrote to Clinch to say it was closing her account. “I have banked with them since 1960,” Clinch said.
Clinch said she had written a complaint to Barclays. The bank subsequently decided that the payments were legitimate and Clinch’s bank account has been restored.
Comprehensive sanctions have been applied against Iranian financial institutions as part of an international campaign against Iran’s nuclear programme.