• Iran International has suspended operations in the UK.
• Channel received threats from Iran.
• TV channel was covering antigovernmental protests in the country.

Due to threats against its journalists in London, independent TV network Iran International has suspended operations in the UK.

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 run out of its Washington, DC, offices.

Police in November warned two British-Iranian journalists for the channel that their lives might be in danger. Outside the studios, concrete barricades were put in place to fend off any car attacks.

“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.”

One of the most well-known news outlets covering the latest surge of antigovernmental rallies in Iran has been Iran International.

Following the death in detention of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been held by morality police for reportedly not properly donning her hijab, protests broke out all over the nation in September.

The Iranian government imposed sanctions on Iran International and BBC News Persian in October after charging them with “inciting riots” and “supporting terrorism” for their coverage of the country’s two-month-long antigovernmental protests.

The two UK-based channels are already prohibited in Iran, but a group that monitors press freedom claims they are among the most important sources of news and information in a nation where free speech is continuously prosecuted and journalists are subjected to retaliation.

Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, reportedly stated in November that Iran International had been designated by Tehran as a “terrorist” organisation, that any cooperation or connections with it would be viewed as a threat to national security, and that its “agents” would be prosecuted.

Additionally, he charged that the UK was spreading false information about Iran’s ruling clergy and threatened to hold it accountable by making security a priority.

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