{"id":3649,"date":"2026-08-18T17:12:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/?p=3649"},"modified":"2026-08-18T17:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:13:11","slug":"another-political-media-outlet-in-iran-has-been-banned-from-continuing-its-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/another-political-media-outlet-in-iran-has-been-banned-from-continuing-its-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Another political media outlet in Iran has been banned from continuing its activities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following charges filed by the Tehran Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Mehdi Ahmadi, the manager and host of the dialogue-oriented media outlet \u201cAzad,\u201d was summoned to the Tehran Prosecutor\u2019s Office, and the outlet was also banned from continuing its activities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mizan<\/a>, the official media outlet of Iran\u2019s Judiciary, reported on Monday, 17 August 2026, that the Tehran Prosecutor\u2019s Office has filed charges against Azad media on the accusation of \u201cdisseminating false information.\u201d According to the report, the outlet, which publishes on the YouTube platform, is accused of releasing content without obtaining a license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehdi Ahmadi also posted a tweet on the official Azad media account, stating that he had visited the prosecutor\u2019s office twice: \u201cIn accordance with the order of the judicial authority, I was released on bail, but Azad media is prohibited from publishing any dialogue until further notice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Azad is one of the most-watched media outlets among Iranians on YouTube. The outlet records its programs in Tehran, the capital of Iran, and organizes political debates among politicians, researchers, and in some cases government and state officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The filing of charges by prosecutors\u2019 offices in Iran is one of the frequently repeated patterns of suppressing freedom of expression in the country. This pattern tends to increase exponentially, especially after the occurrence of controversial events. It appears that the successive charges brought by prosecutors\u2019 offices against media outlets and journalists aim to prevent the dissemination of unofficial narratives by these judicial and security institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the annual report<\/a> of the Defending Free Flow of Information Organization (DeFFI), Iranian journalists and media outlets are experiencing an unprecedented period of security pressures, judicial confrontations, and targeted disruption of their professional activities, a situation that this freedom-of-expression advocacy organization describes as a \u201cmilitary mobilization against the free flow of information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the report, in 2025 alone, at least 225 journalists or media outlets faced judicial or security measures; 25 journalists or media managing directors were collectively sentenced to more than 30 years in prison and 293 million tomans in fines; at least 148 new judicial cases were filed against journalists and media outlets; and eight media outlets were shut down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following charges filed by the Tehran Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Mehdi Ahmadi, the manager and host of the dialogue-oriented media outlet \u201cAzad,\u201d was summoned to the Tehran Prosecutor\u2019s Office, and the outlet was also banned from continuing its activities. Mizan, the official media outlet of Iran\u2019s Judiciary, reported on Monday, 17 August 2026, that the Tehran Prosecutor\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,89,26],"tags":[462,463],"class_list":{"0":"post-3649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-news-highlights","9":"category-repression-of-media","10":"tag-azad","11":"tag-mehdi-ahmadi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3651,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3649\/revisions\/3651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}