Tehran has vowed to continue threatening the news channel Iran International in blatant disregard of the call by UN experts to cease its transnational violence against the UK-based network and its journalists.
The Guardian Council's approved presidential candidates, to be announced next week, will each have an allocated time to air their promotional campaigns on state TV starting June 12 until June 26.
The presidential debates will also be broadcast live.
The IRIB’s election headquarters’ warning, issued alongside guidelines for candidate ads on Thursday, prohibited content that could “sow doubt,” “undermine the Islamic Republic's achievements,” or “erode public trust in the electoral process.”
The US and EU sanctioned IRIB in 2013, and 2022 for being a "critical tool of the Iranian government's mass suppression and censorship campaign against its people.”
An opinion survey by the Netherlands-based Gamaan Institute last year collected information from 38,445 people inside Iran about their views on media, revealing that only about 21 percent of the respondents followed the developments about Iran from IRIB.
Criticism of the current administration, particularly under Ebrahim Raisi, whose death last month triggered the snap election, will be closely scrutinized, with any perceived negative portrayal risking exclusion from national media coverage.
The directive came amid broader restrictions on media content ahead of elections, warning the candidates to refrain from defamation and actions detrimental to national unity and participation.
Iran's Press Supervisory Board also warned that violators would be punished with 74 lashes if found guilty.
According to instructions published on Wednesday, disseminating material that promotes "the boycott of elections and lower participation" and "organizing unauthorized protests, strikes, or sit-ins" constitutes a crime.
Iran's Minister of Intelligence also stated that his agency is closely monitoring the behavior of presidential candidates and their supporters, warning that those promoting "subversive" narratives will be prosecuted.
The warnings follow the Supreme Leader's address on Monday, in which he urged competitors to avoid slander and refrain from smearing each other.
These cautions are issued amid a backdrop where several candidates, among them Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, are linked to cases of corruption and human rights violations, where the electoral debates may provide an opportunity for candidates to expose each other.
Ghalibaf, the conservative parliament speaker and former mayor of Tehran, was embroiled in multiple financial scandals involving his immediate aides. Several of his associates, who were also former IRGC officers, were tried and convicted in cases involving approximately $5 billion.
The Iranian politician Pour Mohammadi, who served as interior minister and justice minister in two different administrations, was on the "Death Commission" responsible for the execution of thousands of Iranian political prisoners during the 1980s.
Despite many warnings, the usual protocol—where candidates launch their campaigns and engage in verbal sparring after receiving approval from the Guardian Council, a 12-member non-elected oversight body—has been disrupted, with confrontations starting prematurely this time.
A high-profile clash erupted between Ghalibaf and Vahid Haghanian, a prominent figure in the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran and a presidential candidate, drawing significant attention. Media affiliated with the IRGC criticized Haghanian and supported Ghalibaf.
Kazem Gharibabadi, head of the Judiciary's Human Rights Headquarters, labeled the network as "terrorist" on social media platform X and issued threats against its employees.
Calling the news network a "puppet of the Zionist regime," Gharibabadi said that the Islamic Republic has designated the channel as a "terrorist" entity and is "pursuing its agents and associates."
The official further implied that Iran International sought help from human rights organizations to reduce Iran's pressure on them.
His comment come a week after five UN experts condemned transnational violence, "death threats, and intimidation against Iran International staff."
The UN experts were clear about their perception of the threat. “We are deeply alarmed that death threats and intimidation against Iran International staff escalated into the violent stabbing of journalist Pouria Zeraati outside his home in London on 29 March 2024."
In reaction to the UN experts’ statement, Kazem Gharibabadi did not deny Islamic Republic’s threats against the channel.
He said that Iran International TV “has appealed to human rights mechanisms in hopes of reducing Iran's pressure, unaware that we will not appease terrorists!”
Zeraati, one of the network’s television hosts and journalists, was stabbed outside his home in London in March, prompting British police to launch a counterterrorism investigation.
A spokesman for the network said, "Iran International TV stands as a beacon of independent journalism, dedicated to delivering accurate and unbiased information. The network prides itself on upholding the highest principles of journalism, ensuring that its reporting remains fair and impartial."
The spokesman said the pressures will not have any impact on Iran International’s work and its reporting.
The mission is to provide comprehensive news coverage to Iranians both within the country and abroad, the spokesman added. "This commitment is reflected in the channel's rigorous approach to news gathering and reporting, which includes timely updates and in-depth analysis of key developments in Iran and around the world."
Last year, Scotland Yard disclosed that police and MI5 had foiled 15 plots since the start of 2022 to either kidnap or kill UK-based individuals perceived as “enemies of the Iranian regime.”
The five special UN rapporteurs urged the Iranian authorities to “refrain from violence, threats and intimidation against Iran International and its staff, online and offline, and other journalists and media workers reporting on Iran from abroad.”
The threats faced by Iran International and its staff from Iranian authorities and their proxies are intended to silence critical media reporting on Iran, the experts assert.
Since its founding, the network and its journalists have endured threats, but these reportedly surged dramatically after the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests erupted across Iran in 2022.
After multiple threats from Tehran, Iran International was temporarily forced to relocate its broadcasting activities to the US in 2023. The broadcaster has since resumed its work from a studio in the UK.
In 2022, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) orchestrated an assassination plot targeting two Iran International news presenters, Fardad Farahzad and Sima Sabet. The plan initially involved a car bomb but was later foiled by a double agent working for a Western intelligence agency.
The following year, Iran International journalist Kian Amani was physically and verbally assaulted by a member of Iran’s delegation to the United Nations at a hotel in New York.
The experts also asserted that the threats emanating from Iran were part of a broader pattern of attacks against Persian language media and dissidents abroad, including journalists working for BBC News Persian, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, IranWire, and Radio Farda.
