Australian senator calls for probe into sanctioned Iranian TV channel

Liberal senator Dave Sharma urged Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong to investigate whether Iran’s state-backed English-language broadcaster, Press TV, is violating Australian sanctions and acting as a channel for foreign interference.

In a letter sent Wednesday, Sharma pressed for a “full investigation and proper enforcement of the sanctions regime as it applies to Press TV.”

The Albanese government sanctioned the broadcaster in 2023, a year after the death in custody of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, which sparked months of nationwide protests across Iran in 2022.

"Press TV constitutes a tool of foreign interference of the Iranian state," Sharma said in an interview. He cited the broadcaster’s interview with Labor defector Fatima Payman, in which she suggested women were treated better in Iran than in the West.

Payman later apologized, calling the event a propaganda exercise.

Australia’s Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 makes it a criminal offense to provide assets to a sanctioned entity or handle its funds indirectly. Sharma argued that Press TV’s continued operation in Australia could constitute such violations, which carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

Last month, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a researcher and former prisoner in Iran, criticized Australian Senator Payman for defending Iran’s treatment of women in an interview with the state-run Press TV.

In a post on X, Moore-Gilbert called Payman’s remarks “nonsense,” rejecting the senator’s claim that Iran allows women to participate in democracy.

She pointed out that Payman had previously attended a Senate inquiry into Iran’s human rights abuses and questioned why she would agree to speak with Press TV.

“The English-language propaganda arm of the Islamic Republic [is] known for broadcasting false confession videos and forced interviews with prisoners before they are executed," she said.

Sharma recently chaired a bipartisan inquiry into Australia’s sanctions regime, which criticized the government’s enforcement efforts. The inquiry’s report found “very limited evidence” that authorities had tracked assets in Australia linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or sanctioned Russian individuals.

A spokesperson for Wong dismissed Sharma’s call as “a crass attempt at a headline.”

Earlier this week, UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis told parliament that Britain will put Iran's intelligence and security establishment on the highest tier of a foreign influence watchlist, toughening London's stance on perceived political interference by Tehran.

Under the designation, Iran and anybody acting on its behalf would be deemed a potential security threat and compelled to register their activities in the UK. Not doing so would potentially incur a five-year prison sentence.