Less than a day after Israel’s attack on several military bases in Iran, the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had filed charges against a news website and several Iranian citizens whom the office referred to as “cyberspace activists.”
Mizan, the official news agency of the judiciary, reported on October 26, 2024, citing the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office: “The Tehran Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against a news site for national security violations related to developments in the region. Additionally, several cyberspace activists received warnings for publishing news that contradicts national interests, and legal cases have been initiated against some of them.”
Mizan did not specify the name of the website or the citizens against whom the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office filed charges. Concurrently, the Organized Crime Center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced in a statement that sending any photographs or news from within Iran to foreign media outlets is a criminal offense. This body threatened Iranian citizens with “legal action.” Additionally, some Iranian websites experienced significant disruptions this morning, hindering their ability to update their content.
The charges filed by the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office against media outlets, media activists, and journalists represent a recurring pattern of suppressing freedom of expression in Iran— a pattern that has been mirrored following two missile and drone attacks carried out by the Islamic Republic from Iranian soil against Israel.
After these provocative events in Iran, judicial and security institutions, in coordination with the Islamic Republic’s propaganda apparatus, are attempting to disrupt free information dissemination to amplify the official narrative of the regime and prevent independent narratives from becoming the dominant discourse among citizens.