WRITTEN EVIDENCE SUBMITTED BY VOLANT MEDIA UK/ IRAN INTERNATIONAL TV

(TRUK0128)

A timeline of Iran International TV and TNR involving the Islamic Republic of Iran

Iran International TV (IITV), is an independent, Persian-language news channel headquartered in London; it is owned and managed by its parent company, Volant Media UK Ltd. It is the most popular Persian-language foreign-based news channel in Iran, and the only one which broadcasts 24/7.

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The majority of Volant’s 700 staff are based in London and in Washington DC; IITV has correspondents based in 22 cities and 12 countries worldwide. Since it began broadcasting in 2017, IITV and its journalists have been the subject of threats and harassment from the Iranian authorities; IITV journalists’ family members inside Iran are subject to harassment and intimidation from the

Iranian security services.

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Iran’s threats against IITV escalated from 2019 onwards in response to IITV’s extensive coverage of social unrest in Iran and the worsening economic conditions there. The template for this campaign of TNR specifically targeting IITV was mapped out in 2019 in a letter from the Islamic Republic’s Intelligence Ministry (MOI) found among a large cache of hacked intelligence ministry documents in 2023 (not hacked by Iran International). The letter referred to a policy of psychological warfare against IITV staffers and their families and the intention to legally sanction staff, preventing them from doing any kind of financial business in Iran involving property and other assets.[1]

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Harsher threats followed. In October 2022, Hossein Salami, commander -in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), warned Iran International “Watch out we’re coming for you”.[2] Iran designated IITV a “terrorist organisation” warning that anyone connected to the Channel would be viewed as a threat to national security.

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Shortly afterwards, in November 2022, two senior IITV staff in London were informed by the Metropolitan Police of a real and immediate risk to their lives and were removed to safety at short notice (the threat to their lives remains).

At the same time, as threats against IITV became acute, armed police and armoured police cars were deployed in and around Iran International’s studios in Chiswick Business Park (the business park had to have barriers and check blocks installed and the studio building itself was surrounded with a 3-metre steel fence). IITV was forced to close its London newsroom operations and switch broadcast operations to Washington DC, something which Gen. Salami boasted that this showed how effective was Iran’s “realm of power, field of infiltration and radius of influence”. In Tehran, posters appeared with pictures of Iran International presenters with “Wanted Dead or Alive”.

Iran International resumed its London broadcast operations in September 2023 in new, secure studios in North London.

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Death threats against IITV staff have continued since 2022: The UK’s ITV News revealed an elaborate plot by the IRGC’s Unit 840 to carry out the murder of two IITV presenters, Fardad Farahzad and Sima Sabet. [3]In separate incidents, other IITV journalists have had to be relocated to safer places under similar threat.

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The Director-General of MI5 Ken McCallum says that the current level of security threat from Russia, Iran and China presents “the most complex and interconnected threat environment” ever seen in the UK. Giving a national security briefing in October 2024, Sir Kenneth referred to the targeting of Iran International when he spoke of Iran’s use of criminals and proxies in the UJK posing lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents.[4]

Iranian TNR in the UK and elsewhere has been condemned by the British government, the US government, many European governments, the EU and various UN bodies. And brought with it calls for Iran to respect international law and the legal conventions to which the Islamic Republic of Iran has itself signed up to.

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The response of the Iranian authorities in regard to Iran International is to reiterate its threats against IITV. In September 2023 Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib said the Iranian government would act against the network and its staff “wherever and whenever deemed necessary”.[5]

In June 2024, Kazem Gharibabadi, vice-president of the Judiciary for International Affairs and then Secretary-General of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, said in response to the UN Experts condemning violence and threats of intimidation against Iran International, that Iran International was a terrorist organisation “whose agents and associates are being pursued”. [6]The ongoing threat from Iran could not be clearer.

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The declared aim of such threats is to silence IITV journalists and take the Channel offair. The means used include assassination plots and physical attacks using proxies. These are life-altering for those involved, with attendant psychological impact on victims, intended victims and their colleagues. There is an ongoing campaign of intimidation through social media, Iranian state media and state-linked media, online and in person as well as disruption through cyberattacks and phishing attacks. Countering these threats requires considerable resources from the Channel itself and considerable state support from the UK.

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(Feb 2025)