Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)

IRIB (Seda va Sima) holds a constitutional monopoly on all radio and television broadcasting in Iran under Article 175 of the constitution, which grants the Supreme Leader sole authority to appoint and dismiss its director. Founded in 1979 after the revolution replaced the Shah-era National Iranian Radio and Television (NIRT), its first head was Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, followed by Mohammad Hashemi (1980–1994), who ran IRIB through the Iran–Iraq War and expanded it from two channels to a multi-channel network. Ali Larijani (1994–2004) was appointed as a hardline counterweight to the reformist press during the Khatami era. Ezzatollah Zarghami (2004–2014) oversaw coverage of the disputed 2009 election and the Green Movement, during which IRIB declared Ahmadinejad the winner before official certification and ignored mass protests. Mohammad Sarafraz (2014–2016), Abdolali Ali-Asgari (2016–2021), and Peyman Jebelli (2021–present) followed. IRIB operates dozens of domestic television and radio channels, provincial stations, and international outlets including Press TV (English), Al-Alam (Arabic), HispanTV (Spanish), and iFilm. It also publishes the daily newspaper Jam-e Jam. IRIB has systematically broadcast forced confessions of political prisoners, journalists, and activists — a practice documented in over 500 cases by human rights organisations. The European Union sanctioned IRIB and director Zarghami in 2012, and Ofcom revoked Press TV's UK licence the same year for airing Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari's coerced confession. Fresh EU sanctions were imposed in October 2022 over IRIB's role during the Mahsa Amini protests. Dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, whose forced confession was broadcast on IRIB, was executed in December 2020.