Farsi TV moves to D.C., cites threats

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Farsi-language satellite news channel based in London, long critical of Iran’s theocractic government, said Saturday that it had moved its broadcasts to Washington “to protect the safety of its journalists” after being targeted by Tehran.

Threats against Farsi-language networks broadcasting abroad have exponentially grown as they cover the nationwide protests that have rocked Iran since September — providing information otherwise unheard across state-controlled television and radio networks.

Iran International described making the decision after London’s Metropolitan Police told it “about the existence of serious and immediate threats to the safety of Iranian journalists” working there.

Reached for comment, Iran International referred to a statement saying that “threats had grown to the point that it was felt it was no longer possible to protect the channel’s staff” or the public around its studio in London.

“This is not just a threat to our TV station but the British public at large,” the channel’s general manager Mahmood Enayat said. “We will continue to broadcast.”

The head of the Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism unit, Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, acknowledged giving advice to Iran International about the threat and moving its operation.

Jukes said in a statement police and the domestic intelligence service MI5 had foiled “15 plots since the start of 2022 to either kidnap or even kill British or U.K.-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime,” without elaborating.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.