Fact-Check | Claim of Support for 'Press Freedom' by the Islamic Republic's Propaganda Media

The website 'Poligraf', a fact-checking project of Voice of America, addressed the claim made by 'Press TV' regarding new sanctions imposed against Iran and Iranian officials in its report on September 18. The report states that last week, the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom imposed a new round of sanctions against Iran due to human rights violations and the right to freedom of expression. Australia announced several sanctions and travel bans against 'four individuals and three entities responsible for suppressing the people of Iran, including women and girls' on September 13, just before the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death in custody of the morality police. These sanctions targeted Iran's cyber police. According to Australia, this entity 'plays a key role in preventing freedom of expression by restricting internet activities in Iran.' On the same day, 'Press TV' described these sanctions as a form of censorship and 'another attack on freedom of expression in Iran led by the West,' stating: 'The Australian government, on the anniversary of protests supported by foreign forces in the country, imposed a new round of sanctions against certain individuals and Iranian entities, including the English-language news network Press TV.' This claim is false. The goal of 'Press TV' is not freedom of expression in Iran; this network promotes the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic abroad. The Islamic Republic has created one of the worst environments in the world for press freedom. After Mahsa Amini's death, the authorities further restricted media freedom and public gatherings. The Iranian authorities' attempts to portray the protests as a 'color revolution' supported by foreign powers are, in fact, efforts to cover up widespread dissatisfaction with decades of authoritarian rule and mismanagement. Like the UK and the European Union, Australia sanctioned 'Press TV' for producing and broadcasting forced confessions of detained protesters. Two years before the Mahsa Amini protests began, the International Federation for Human Rights and Justice for Iran reported that Iranian state media broadcast at least 355 forced confessions between 2009 and 2019. According to this report, Iran, China, North Korea, and Vietnam are the only countries that 'systematically broadcast such confessions.' Ervand Abrahamian, a prominent historian of contemporary Iran, states that the Islamic Republic has equipped itself with a 'propaganda weapon' by broadcasting forced confessions. Although forced confessions are not admissible in court and are illegal under international law and Iran's own laws, according to Abrahamian, Iran has tried to circumvent these laws by condemning these individuals to 'a specified number of lashes for lying.' However, abuses go beyond this. Victims have reported that their torturers used cutters, lighters, cables, forced injections of hallucinogenic drugs, and years of solitary confinement to extract confessions from them. In December 2022, Iranian state media broadcast confessions from five suspects in a bombing in Shiraz; confessions that, according to relatives of these individuals, were recorded following their torture. According to human rights groups, these confessions could lead to severe punishments, including execution, for protesters against Mahsa Amini's death. After Mahsa Amini's death, Reporters Without Borders stated: 'Iran has reinforced its position as one of the most repressive countries in the world regarding press freedom.' This organization added that the Islamic Republic has arrested 79 journalists in connection with these protests, many of whom are women. 'Freedom House,' a human rights group based in Washington, stated that Iranian authorities have severely restricted access to the internet—including social networks such as Instagram and WhatsApp—and have tried to silence reporters. In recent months, the Islamic Republic has increased social surveillance to identify and punish the growing population of women who do not comply with mandatory dress codes. Iranian authorities have also pressured the families of those killed in protests not to hold memorial ceremonies for their loved ones. The independent international fact-finding mission of the UN Human Rights Council regarding the Islamic Republic accused Iranian officials of 'intensifying punitive measures against those who peacefully exercise their fundamental rights—including freedom of religion, expression, and assembly.' On September 15, Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, while referring to the severe crackdown on last year's protests in Iran, stated: 'We will continue to take appropriate actions to hold accountable those who suppress Iranians' efforts to exercise their human rights.' This report was prepared and organized using Poligraf's report, a fact-checking project of Voice of America.