The U.K. media regulator, Ofcom, and counter-terrorism police have yet to shut down LuaLua TV, an Iran-linked media outlet accused of broadcasting Iranian regime propaganda “with impunity” and even promoting proscribed terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Despite appeals from lawmakers, Jewish bodies, and intelligence experts, Ofcom maintains it is powerless to ban the “propaganda arm” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) because LuaLua TV streams online using YouTube, a loophole not covered by Ofcom rules. The loophole appears to be a source of frustration for Ofcom officials.
“LuaLua TV is available in the U.K. only as an online streaming service. Online streams of TV channels are not covered by Ofcom’s broadcasting rules unless the service is also listed on a regulated TV guide, such as Sky, Virgin, Freeview or Freesat,” an Ofcom spokesperson told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI). “Since Lualua TV only streams online and does not appear on a regulated guide in the UK, its content is not subject to Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code or related regulations.
However, Ofcom’s draft new Code of Standards issued in May 2026, which sets rules for streaming services and includes rules that prohibit terrorism content and material likely to incite violence or hatred, could be used to ban the IRGC-linked media and Shells for Media Productions Limited, the parent corporation and licensee of LuaLua TV.
While the code is still in the consultation phase, the new rules would consider “material the inclusion of which in an on-demand program service” as “an offence under section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006 (encouragement of terrorism).” The consultation ends in August.
The IRGC has no place in the UK, nor does the promotion or glorification of its partners Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Shells for Media Productions Ltd is the licensee for LuaLua TV, but this license is not used. However, Ofcom has an ongoing duty to be satisfied that all broadcast licensees are fit and proper to hold their licenses, and we’ll consider carefully any new evidence available on whether existing licensees remain fit and proper,” Ofcom told FWI.
U.S. Seizes LuaLua TV’s Website
In January, The Telegraph revealed that LuaLua TV is a member of the Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), a Tehran-based media coalition established in 2007 by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to promote pro-Iranian narratives.
In a February report, The Telegraph reported that the IRGC-linked channel “regularly heaps praise on senior Hamas and Hezbollah commanders, whom it describes as martyrs and heroes.”
IRTVU’s website states that its goal is “to create a strong and cohesive Islamic media bloc based on the teachings of Prophet Muhammad” and to confront “false and malicious propaganda of [the] enemies of Islam and dissemination of accurate and comprehensive information.”
In 2020, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control designated IRTVU as a Specially Designated National “for being owned or controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.” A year later, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had seized 33 IRTVU websites, including LuaLua TV’s website.
Parliamentarians Urge Government to Ban Iran-Linked Channel
Shadow ministers Alicia Kearns MP and Nigel Huddleston MP wrote to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley earlier this year asking whether police are investigating the channel for “promoting proscribed terrorist groups.”
“LuaLua TV broadcasts online from its headquarters in London, regularly praising terrorist attacks by proscribed groups Hamas and Hezbollah. It also promotes Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps propaganda,” they noted. “This includes referring to the former head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, and former head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, as heroes and martyrs.
The lawmakers also stressed that the media channel “broadcasts and promotes sermons by Ayatollah Khamenei, whose regime has in recent weeks executed thousands of young Iranian protesters in cold blood, let alone its persistent and pernicious attacks to undermine our country and commit assassinations on our streets.”
“I’ve repeatedly raised concerns about LuaLua TV and its promotion of groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Kearns tweeted in March. “I’m calling on Ofcom to urgently revoke its license and the Met Police to investigate them.”
“The IRGC has no place in the UK, nor does the promotion or glorification of its partners Hamas and Hezbollah,” Kearns insisted. “Ofcom now needs to act decisively. The U.K. must not become a safe haven for extremist propaganda, and any outlet found to be promoting proscribed terrorist groups must be shut down immediately.”
In March, lawmaker Jess Brown-Fuller MP asked in parliament if the Department for Culture, Media and Sport “has held discussions with Ofcom on national security considerations relating to the broadcasting license held by LuaLua TV.” Speaking for the state, Ian Murray MP replied that Ofcom carries out its duties “independently of the government” and can revoke the licenses of broadcasters with links to proscribed bodies.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said in February that it had referred the lawmakers’ complaints to specialist officers within Counter Terrorism Policing London and would refer the matter to “the relevant investigation team within Counter Terrorism Policing, or to local policing to consider for further investigation” if it identified any potential offences.
‘Serious Concern’
“The reported links between LuaLuaTV’s parent company and Iran’s terrorist IRGC, together with the reported dissemination of antisemitic material and alleged glorification of Hamas and Hezbollah, both proscribed in the UK, are of serious concern,” a spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) told FWI.
“At a time of heightened concern about threats linked to the Iranian regime, it is troubling that this channel has apparently been able to operate from a West London trading estate while retaining an Ofcom license,” CAA noted. “Ofcom previously said that it was reviewing the parent company’s broadcasting license: it must urgently announce what steps it plans to take.”
Experts have called for Ofcom to block the channel. Calling for Ofcom to “absolutely revoke its license,” Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British ambassador to Yemen, now a senior policy fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, warned that “the U.K. has been remiss in looking seriously about what can be done about LuaLua TV.”
“We call it covert influence,” Jonathan Hackett, a former US intelligence operator, explained. “The actual sponsor of the activity is not revealed, but there is the common narrative of propping up the regime’s activities, explaining the regime’s behaviour, and then there’s the influence of a foreign objective.”
“IRTVU is a Quds Force-controlled media organ [conducting] malign influence operations. An affiliate like LuaLua TV is not just a sympathetic entity—it has direct links [to the regime].” Hackett warned.
FWI has contacted the Metropolitan Police and LuaLua TV for comment but has yet to receive a response.
