UK counter-terror police warned over alleged IRGC breach by London-based LuaLua TV
Counter-terror police in the United Kingdom have been warned that London-based LuaLua TV may be breaching the country's new ban on support for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. The allegation centres on the station's links to the Islamic Radios and Television Union, known as IRTVU, and on its online output, which has been described as pro-Iran and sympathetic to Hamas and Hezbollah. LuaLua TV is based in London and holds an Ofcom licence, but it is said to operate only online and on social media.
Sponsored
The warning comes after the National Security Act introduced restrictions on support for the IRGC. According to the material supplied, LuaLua TV is openly a member of the IRTVU, a media grouping spanning 35 countries. The United States said in 2020 that the IRTVU was owned or controlled by the IRGC Quds Force and described it as a propaganda arm.
The station's membership of that body is the main basis for the claim that it could now be in breach of the UK law. The station was originally set up in London in 2011 as an opposition channel to Bahrain's government. It is now described as still streaming online while appearing to remain under Iran's sphere of influence.
The supplied material says it regularly praises Hezbollah and Hamas attacks and promotes Iranian propaganda. It also says the outlet has celebrated Hezbollah's role in the 7 October attack and mourned Yahya Sinwar, who is described in the material as the massacre's mastermind. The case matters because it sits at the intersection of media regulation, national security and foreign influence.
Sponsored
The UK's new restrictions on support for the IRGC are intended to limit assistance to a body designated as a security concern, and any breach would raise questions about how those rules apply to media organisations operating from Britain. The allegation also highlights the challenge of policing online-only outlets that can broadcast from London while maintaining links to overseas political and militant networks. The row has drawn in figures with experience of extremism and national security policy.
Lord Walney, the government's former extremism tsar, said he believes the outlet breaches the new National Security Act because of its ties to the IRTVU. Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister, said the station's director has little deniability over its links to the IRGC. Their comments suggest the issue is being treated not simply as a media standards dispute, but as a possible national-security enforcement matter.
The supplied material also points to a wider history around the organisations involved. The IRTVU is described as a membership group for media entities across dozens of countries, but one that the United States sanctioned in 2020. The US Department of Justice also shut down LuaLua TV's website in 2021, according to the report.
Those earlier actions are being used to support the argument that the station's current activity may not be independent of Iranian state influence. LuaLua TV's Ofcom licence adds another layer to the case, because it suggests the outlet has a formal regulatory presence in the UK even as its content is said to be directed online. The allegation therefore raises questions about how domestic licensing, online publishing and foreign-linked political messaging interact under the new law.
Sponsored
It also underlines the difficulty of assessing whether a broadcaster is merely sympathetic to a cause or is materially supporting a proscribed organisation. What remains unclear is whether counter-terror police will open a formal investigation, and whether any enforcement action will follow. The supplied material does not say whether the station has responded to the allegations.
#LuaLuaTV #IRGC #NationalSecurityAct #counterterrorpolice #London
Sponsored
