The Islamic State group bans satellite TV

Civilians in Islamic State group-controlled areas will no longer be able tune into their favourite television shows, after a ban on satellite TV. 

IS controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq, and satellite TV offers residents rare access to news and entertainment from the outside world. 

The militant group has banned music, films and other forms of pop culture, and enforces strict punishments including flogging and amputations for transgressors.

Now the sale, exchange, promotion, use and repair of satellite receivers throughout "all the lands of the Islamic State" will be banned according to a recent statement from the group.

The group has also condemned outside TV channels, particularly Muslim religious programmes that don't offer a different interpretation to Islam that its scholars' narrow and extremist outlook.

A statement announcing the ban has circulated on social media, and IS have displayed the notice in shop windows in Syria and Iraq to warn subjects.

Twitter Post

"Of the clearest sources of immorality in our age are the spread of devices that receive satellite signals, which broadcasts night and day [messages] of war against God and His Messenger," the statement read. 

"[Satellite] spreads uncertainty and the promotion of lustful desires and forbidden deeds. Almighty God has ordered halting the sources of corruption and preventing the machinations of Satan."

The statement said that 'Islamic channels' - often broadcasted from the Gulf region - are a "corrupt ideology" and condemned preachers that call for war against IS militants.

"News channels spread falsified lies and defamation," the group also claimed.

IS leaders have previously destroyed TV satellites and receivers in parts of Syria and Iraq under their control.

The group has also blocked internet access, to prevent news leaving or entering its territories and maintain a tight control on information open to its subjects.