10 Things to Know About Tehran’s Propaganda Network, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting

Israel struck the Tehran headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on June 16, damaging a key regime media organ. IRIB is far from an independent news channel. Rather, it is a tool of the Islamic Republic that uses torture and other unlawful and internationally condemned punitive techniques to intimidate the Iranian population and deter dissent. 

1. IRIB is the clerical regime’s primary propaganda and disinformation arm.

“IRIB and its subsidiaries act not as objective media outlets but rather as a critical tool in the Iranian government’s mass suppression and censorship campaign against its own people,” the U.S. Treasury Department explained in 2022. IRIB not only broadcasts a narrative sympathetic to the Islamist regime but also attempts to garner support, domestically and internationally, for Tehran and its organs of oppression. The organization enables the torture and prosecution of Iranians by sharing coerced confessions and impugning the character of anti-regime Iranians. FDD has termed IRIB “Torture TV” for its role in disseminating coerced confessions.

2. IRIB has a near monopoly on broadcast media in Iran.

Inside Iran, IRIB operates 19 national television channels. The regime maintains IRIB’s position by restricting private satellites and international frequencies. Tehran banned this technology in 1994 in a law that directs the Basij forces to confiscate satellites and receivers. The regime has attempted to block Starlink access in Iran after citizens began smuggling the equipment into the country.

3. IRIB’s conduct violates international law, but Iran’s legislature and executive leadership explicitly permit it.

Forced false confessions are flagrant violations of international conventions, including the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Despite a prohibition on torture in the Islamic Republic’s constitution, subsequent Iranian legislation, specifically the Discretionary Punishment Law, has permitted torture, including for the purpose of procuring confessions. IRIB also manipulates footage of individuals to create the illusion of a confession when there was none. In response to nationwide protests in November 2019, Iran’s political leadership, including then President Hassan Rouhani, publicly called for the broadcasting of confessions elicited from the protestors.

4. The supreme leader appoints the head of IRIB.

According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, the supreme leader selects the head of IRIB. The constitution says that broadcasts must be “in keeping with the Islamic criteria and the best interests of the country.” The supreme leader’s control maintains the extremist orientation of IRIB and ensures the clerical regime has a tight hand on broadcasting in Iran. Previous Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini described confessions as “the highest proof of guilt” despite the known use of torture by operatives of the regime. Given this control and Khomeini’s declared support for forced confessions, IRIB has no incentive or desire to reform this criminal, unlawful, and abusive practice.

5. The United States, Canada, and the European Union have imposed sanctions on IRIB and/or its employees for their role in forced confessions.

The United States designated IRIB in 2013, and Canada did the same in 2016. In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department designated IRIB’s current director general, Peyman Jebelli, and six IRIB senior employees for their role in coerced confessions. “IRIB has produced and recently broadcast televised interviews of individuals being forced to confess that their relatives were not killed by Iranian authorities during nationwide protests but died due to accidental, unrelated causes,” Treasury noted. The European Union has also designated Jebelli, past directors general, and key IRIB employees. The European Union likewise designated leaders of Press TV, an English- and French-language subsidiary of IRIB, for televising forced confessions.

6. IRIB works with the Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iran’s MOI and IRGC coordinate with IRIB and the judiciary to convict individuals as criminals in sham trials, sometimes leading to the death penalty. MOI and the IRGC coerce confessions through torture and craft confessions that they force prisoners to recite. Both MOI and the IRGC are U.S.-listed Specially Designated Global Terrorist entities, and the IRGC is additionally designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Both designations allow Washington to impose a range of penalties on MOI and the IRGC.

7. Human rights organizations have no access to political prisoners, but IRIB does.

Hamid Rez Emadi, senior producer and newsroom director of Press TV, interviewed Maziar Bahari in the notorious Evin Prison. Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist, provided IRIB with a false confession in exchange for his freedom. However, the regime continued to torture him for over two months. While Bahari is one of the more well-known cases, most victims go unnoticed by the global human rights community. Prisoners in Evin and other Iranian jails are often denied medical care, family visits, and other basic rights.

8. IRIB falsely accuses detainees of serving as agents of foreign governments, particularly adversaries of the regime.

In coerced confessions, prisoners often falsely admit to serving as operatives of the regime’s enemies, notably the United States and Israel, which the Islamic Republic calls the “great Satan” and the “little Satan,” respectively. IRIB uses forced false confessions to publicize these lies, then promotes them online or in show trials. Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish physician, is currently on death row, falsely accused of serving as an agent of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence organization. He has stated that his confession was coerced and that the real reason for his arrest was his refusal to collaborate with MOI. The regime’s allegations constitute an attempt to delegitimize political opponents and to justify extreme punishments. IRIB also seeks to vilify countries the regime sees as adversaries.

9. IRIB engages in information and influence operations abroad.

Iranian authorities believe that the survival of the Islamic Republic requires an information war and influence operations throughout the world. This has led the regime to leverage digital media that it hopes will boost its propaganda. In 2021, Meta, which operates Facebook and other social media platforms, exposed IRIB for running covert influence operations targeting the United States. The cybersecurity firms FireEye and ClearSky later linked IRIB’s exposed operation to the International Union of Virtual Media, an Iranian influence front that is active globally. Facebook caught IRIB’s Pars Today running covert influence operations on Facebook in West Africa in 2019.

10. IRIB operates an extensive network of non-Persian news outlets.

Beyond IRIB’s domestic networks, IRIB’s disinformation and propaganda network has a global reach, broadcasting eight international television channels. These include non-Farsi channels, such as a religious Arabic channel, that broadcast in English, Spanish, and other languages. IRIB also produces radio programs in 32 languages across the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. These international programs portray the regime in a positive light, ignore human rights abuses, and attempt to conceal Tehran’s anti-Western views. IRIB also broadcasts forced confessions on its international programs, sometimes in violation of local laws. To facilitate IRIB’s international programming, Tehran tripled IRIB’s annual budget for 2025, earmarking $480 million for the outfit, the first time it has seen such a jump.

Bridget Toomey is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where she focuses on Iranian proxies, specifically Iraqi militias and the Houthis. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Toby Dershowitz is the managing director at FDD Action. FDD Action is a non-partisan 501(c)(4) organization established to advocate for effective policies to promote U.S. national security and defend free nations. For more analysis from Bridget, Toby, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Bridget on X @BridgetKToomey. Follow Toby on X @TobyDersh. Follow FDD on X @FDD.