Shadow culture secretary Nigel Huddleston has called upon the authorities to consider whether the watchdog could make fuller use of the powers it has, or if the law needs to be changed. He said: “This is deeply alarming. Platforming terrorism has no place in UK broadcasting.”
The Conservative frontbencher urged the government to “urgently examine whether Ofcom currently has adequate powers to act on security concerns”.
London-based LuaLua TV was banned in 2021 by the US over its ties to the Islamic Republic. Since October 7, 2023, it has broadcast extended speeches from slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The channel repeatedly aired seemingly positive views of the October 7 massacre, with contributors calling the attack “a step closer to victory” and “humiliating” for Israel.
One guest, Dr Abdel Malik Sukkariyeh, said in an interview on the channel that “the Hamas leadership was well prepared” for the battle and “the enemy [was] humiliated by the resistance”.
Another channel that streams online via YouTube from its base in Acton, west London, Al-Hiwar, has also sparked repeated outrage.
UK-based Palestinian academic, Azzam Al-Tamimi, ranted about eliminating Zionism (Memri)[Missing Credit]
With 1.88 million YouTube subscribers, Al-Hiwar has hosted senior Hamas figures, including former West Bank leader Mohammad Sawalha and Tayseer Suleiman, a founder of the al-Qassam Brigades.
In an episode last month, Palestinian academics sat around a studio table against a backdrop of the Houses of Parliament and launched into a series of anti-Zionist tropes.
Former Al-Jazeera director-general Wadah Khanfar said Zionism was “destroying the world order that was born following World War Two”.
Former Hamas media consultant Nashat Aqtash claimed: “The World Bank is part of the Zionist enterprise. The IMF is part of the Zionist enterprise. Creating world leaders is part of the Zionist enterprise.”
Aqtash also alleged that Theodor Herzl had struck a secret 1932 deal with Adolf Eichmann in Haifa to stage “Nazi massacres”. When presenter and the channel’s founding managing editor, Azzam al-Tamimi, pointed out that Herzl had died decades earlier, Aqtash revised the claim to involve Chaim Weizmann instead.
Tamimi – who told a London audience in 2009 “We are all Hamas” – is a regular presenter on the channel.
On the November 13 programme, he declared: “We now unite the people on the elimination of the Zionist enterprise… Zionism is an inhuman – and even anti-human – movement.”
The comments broadcast earlier this month come weeks after the CST published a report accusing the channel of “repeatedly” airing material “at least sympathetic of Hamas”.
The Jewish community security charity analysed 120 Al-Hiwar shows since October 2023. On the day of the October 7 attack, presenter Salih al-Azraq told viewers: “The resistance would kill and capture dozens… today’s scenes of the resistance may increase the pride and honour of this nation.”
Al-Hiwar, which is owned by Sage Media, was founded in 2005. The station claims on its website that it “aims to promote dialogue”.
An Ofcom spokesperson told the JC: “Our broadcasting rules serve to protect audiences and we take broadcasters’ compliance with these rules seriously. LuaLua TV is an online stream, and Al-Hiwar – which stopped broadcasting in 2023, before which we twice found it in breach of our rules – is on YouTube. The Broadcasting Code does not apply to online-only streams or YouTube channels and any change to this would be a matter for government and parliament.”
Dave Rich, CST head of policy, said: “For years, Al-Hiwar has used its status as a UK-based, Ofcom-licensed station to promote extreme and harmful views that would never get comparable space on an English-language, mainstream channel. Even worse, these videos are then uploaded by Al-Hiwar to its YouTube channel where they are out of reach of Ofcom’s regulation for good.”
The JC approached LuaLua, Al-Hiwar and Akraf for comment.
