The week in audio: Iran’s Hit Squads; Pod Save the UK; Frontlines of Journalism and more

Paul Caruana Galizia studies the dangers of being Iranian in the UK; a British version of the hit US show tries too hard, Jeremy Bowen probes BBC impartiality and more

BY Miranda Sawyer

Paul Caruana Galizia is the son of the murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and as such has a more than casual interest in corrupt authorities hiring assassins to get rid of problematic journalists.

His mother, an investigative reporter who had exposed links between the Maltese government and dodgy businessmen, was killed in 2017 by a car bomb.

Since then, Paul and his brothers, Matthew and Andrew, have worked hard not only to keep their mother’s name alive, but also to try to track down her murderers (listen to Wondery’s Who Killed Daphne? or Paul’s own My Mother’s Murder, on Tortoise).

Paul, who is based in the UK, has been carving out his own career as an excellent investigative journalist. Last year he researched and presented the darkly fascinating Londongrad podcast series.

This looked at the links between the Lebedevs (Alexander and son Evgeny) and the UK’s Tory government, particularly during the Boris Johnson era. With the second series, Paul turns his dogged mind and instantly recognisable voice to Iran in Londongrad: Iran’s Hit Squads.

His argument is that, until recently, the biggest terrorist threat to the UK came from organisations such as Islamic State or al-Qaida; now it is from rogue states such as Russia and China and – especially – Iran. And London is the place where many of these crimes are being attempted.

The director general of MI5 confirms that there were at least 15 plots to kill or kidnap British or UK-based individuals by Iran’s intelligence services last year.

Rana Rahimpour, a BBC presenter, describes how her life has changed since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being taken into custody by Iranian authorities for not wearing her hijab (headscarf) correctly; Amini’s death triggered the recent protests in Iran.

Rahimpour’s reporting of it has made her and her family targets. “My life in London, which I used to think was safe, is no longer the same,” she says. Iran International, a TV station based in west London, has been forced to move to the US because of threats.

But why is no one being prosecuted? Because the British government doesn’t want them to be. Iran has long been a state that Britain thinks can be flipped from an Islamic theocracy into something more palatable to the west. Caruana Galizia, a man who searches out truth like a laser, does not accept this argument.