Ofcom is under pressure to strip the broadcast licence from a London-based television channel accused of being the “propaganda arm” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The broadcast watchdog has been warned that LuaLua TV has disseminated “a significant quantity of pro-Hezbollah content” in recent weeks.
These include several social-media posts commemorating the death of the “martyr” Hassan Nasrallah, the former head of Hezbollah, whom Israel assassinated in September 2024. The posts have been referred to counter-terror police as the British Government has proscribed Hezbollah.
Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister, has said Ofcom’s failure to revoke LuaLua’s broadcast licence is “nothing short of shameful” and “suggests a strong apathy towards the scourge of anti-Semitism”.
The IRGC, known as the Ayatollah’s “terror army”, has played a leading role in the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Iran. More than 3,000 people were killed in major nationwide protests last December and January, according to Iranian state media, with demonstrators shot dead in the street.
On its online broadcasts and social media channels, LuaLua TV regularly heaps praise on senior Hamas and Hezbollah commanders, describing them as martyrs and heroes.
These include Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas in Gaza, who is thought to have planned the Oct 7 massacre, and Ismail Haniyeh, another former head of Hamas in Gaza. Israel assassinated both men in 2024.
LuaLua TV has also hailed as a martyr Qassim Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, an IRGC division responsible for clandestine operations. The US assassinated him in 2020.
Elsewhere, the station has promoted a sermon by Ali Khamenei, Iran’s former supreme leader, in which he claimed that “the resistance in Lebanon and Gaza will triumph”.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers on a Al Quds Day march (an international day of protest against Israel) – NurPhoto via Getty Images/Morteza Nikoubazl
LuaLua TV is a member of the Islamic Radios and Television Union, which the US treasury department sanctioned in 2020 for being “owned or controlled by” the IRGC Quds Force. The US department of justice closed down LuaLua TV’s website in 2021.
In a letter to Dame Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom, Ms Kearns said: “I do not need to remind you that Hezbollah is proscribed – in its entirety – under the Terrorism Act 2000, and that LuaLua TV’s activities likely constitute criminal offences, for which they have been referred to Counter Terrorism Police.
“Ofcom’s deliberate refusal to use its powers and revoke LuaLua’s licence is nothing short of shameful and suggests a strong apathy towards the scourge of anti-Semitism at a time when the Jewish community are facing unprecedented attacks, including terrorism sponsored by the very state LuaLua has such a strong affinity for.”
LuaLua TV, a subsidiary of Shells for Media Productions Limited, was originally set up in opposition to the Bahrain government and is run from offices in Wembley, north-west London.
It began broadcasting online and via satellite in 2011, to provide what it said was an alternative to Bahraini state-controlled broadcasts. Bahrain has claimed that Iran is to blame for opposition protests among its Shia population.
A Counter Terrorism Policing spokesman said: “Any allegations relating to possible terrorism or national security-related offences are passed to officers within Counter Terrorism Policing, who will assess the details and take any further action as appropriate. More broadly, we do not comment on who may or may not be subject to any counter terrorism investigation.”
A spokesman for Ofcom declined to comment. LuaLua TV was approached for comment.