Iranian TV channel 'forced' to shut down its London studios after threats
Iranian TV channel
Iran International, which is a Farsi-language satellite news channel, said it was forced to move the broadcasts from London to Washington because of the safety of its journalists after alleged threats.
The independent network said that the decision was taken after the UK police advised them to shut down its London studios when the network received "significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran".
Mahmood Enayat, who is the general manager of the network, said, "I cannot believe it has come to this." He also mentioned that 24-hour broadcasts were continuing from the station's offices in Washington.
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He said, "A foreign state has caused such a significant threat to the British public on British soil that we have to move."
"Let's be clear this is not just a threat to our TV station but the British public at large. Even more this is an assault on the values of sovereignty, security and free speech that the UK has always held dear," he added.
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News agency AFP reported that police on Saturday said that they "have serious concerns for the safety of people working at this company".
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The security issues were raised after the arrest of an Austrian-Iranian man near the studios in Chiswick, west London last weekend.
The report mentioned that a 30-year-old man, identified as Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev was charged on Monday "with collecting information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".
A source told the news agency that the decision to shut down the London office was apparently taken after the arrest as the police said that despite the man's arrest, threats are still there.
Police said that "this has led to us giving further advice and the company is now relocating." They also added that its advice was "exceptional" and not "given lightly".
"The situation that journalists face around the world and the fact that some journalists face such hostile intentions of foreign states whilst in the UK is a challenging reality that we are determined to confront," it said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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