Iran International: Channel leaves UK after regime threats

Independent TV network Iran International is suspending its operations in the UK because of threats against its London-based journalists.

The Persian-language TV channel said that the decision was due to a "significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran".

"Threats had grown to the point that it was felt it was no longer possible to protect the channel's staff," it said.

The station will continue to operate from its offices in Washington DC.

The decision comes after the arrest last weekend of an Austrian-Iranian man near the channel's studios in Chiswick, west London.

Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, 30, was charged on Monday "with collecting information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism", police said.

"I cannot believe it has come to this," said the network's general manager, Mahmood Enayat.

"A foreign state has caused such a significant threat to the British public on British soil that we have to move," he said.

"Let's be clear, this is not just a threat to our TV station, but the British public at large."

Iran International has been one of the most prominent providers of news on the recent wave of anti-government protests in Iran.

Protests swept across the country in September following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

In October, the Iranian government announced sanctions against Iran International and BBC News Persian, accusing them of "incitement of riots" and "support of terrorism" over their coverage of the anti-government protests that have engulfed the country over the past two months.

The two UK-based channels are already banned from Iran, but a press freedom watchdog says they are among the main sources of news and information in a country where independent media and journalists are constantly persecuted.

In November, Iran's Intelligence Minister, Esmail Khatib, said Iran International had been identified by Tehran as a "terrorist" organisation, that all co-operation and links with it would be considered a threat against national security, and that its "agents" would be pursued, state news agency Irna reported.

He also accused the UK of spreading propaganda against Iran's clerical establishment and warned it would "pay for its measures to create insecurity".