A prominent Iranian TV commentator's move to the United Kingdom to join an opposition station after a long career at Iran’s state TV has revived a longstanding debate over the public approval of IRIB, the sole national broadcaster holding a monopoly over domestic radio and television services in Iran.

Mazdak Mirzaei is a 48-year-old soccer commentator and TV show host who has moved to the UK to work with Iran International, a London-based TV channel launched in May 2017, which is believed to be funded by a “secretive offshore entity and a company” whose director is a Saudi Arabian businessman with close ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Iran International regularly features guests who are highly critical of the Islamic Republic and does not shy away from presenting itself as an opposition media organization.

Over the past couple of decades, and especially following the disputed presidential election in 2009 that saw a bitter re-election victory for hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, IRIB’s various TV and radio channels have been relentlessly airing propaganda against the country’s reform movement in the form of one-sided debates, interviews with conservatives, opinionated news programs, recorded “confessions” of political prisoners, talk shows with Ahmadinejad sympathizers and even drama serials with political undertones.