Four years after Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement, the regime prepares a new offensive against the press

Yalda Moaiery never received her summons to court. According to the journalist, the authorities sent it by text message in August to a number they themselves had blocked. Hardly surprising in Iran, a country ranked 177th out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index. Since December, the regime has repeatedly cut off internet access, blocked journalists' SIM cards, and banned them from communicating with foreign media through threats of accusations of espionage.

This is how Yalda Moaiery, an independent photojournalist who has covered Iran and the region for 20 years for several international media outlets - including the French daily Le Monde, the US magazine Time, and the Spanish daily El País - came to be sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison on 8 August for photographing the US-Israeli offensive earlier this year. "There was another appointment in the court [on 1 September], and I was there that time. I tried to defend myself, but [...] the jury didn't really listen to me," she told RSF from Iran, where the judiciary is directly under the authority of the Supreme Leader. The Islamic Republic "cannot tolerate any journalists who are working freely," she said. Accused of having "collaborated with foreign media with the aim of strengthening the Zionist regime and the United States," the journalist saw her sentence upheld on 1 September and is awaiting an appeal trial.

A new law in the background

This heavy 15-year prison sentence is part of an intensifying crackdown on journalism that has escalated since the outbreak of the Woman, Life, Freedom'' movement in 2022. This repression could further intensify with a new draconian law currently being drafted. "Participating in interviews with media outlets or media professionals designated as hostile by the Ministry of Intelligence [...] is prohibited," Article 22 of the so-called "Plan to Combat Foreign Influence" states, for example.

The draft bill would effectively give a legal veneer to restrictions that were already in place and that have become widespread since the March 2026 war between Iran and the Israeli-US coalition. In practice, such communications were already being criminalised. The bill would also broaden the definition of "espionage", thereby making it easier to prosecute journalists as well as their sources.

The provisions of the new law, approved by Parliament on 16 August, still have to be debated by the Guardian Council before they can come into force. No date has been set for the Council's final decision.

A law criminalising any collaboration with foreign media

The new draft law goes beyond existing legislation, which punishes propaganda against the state or collaboration with a hostile state, by explicitly criminalising appearing in media outlets "linked to the United States or Israel." Iranian nationals would also be required to seek authorisation before responding to any interview request from a foreign media outlet, even one not linked to either of the two countries regarded as enemies by the Islamic Republic.

"Instead of precisely defining espionage, [the law] relies on extremely broad concepts such as 'collaboration'," explains Iranian lawyer Mousa Barzin, who is exiled in Turkey. "It is not only journalists who are concerned: any employee, doctor, nurse, lawyer, or other citizen who could potentially serve as a source of information may, out of fear of sanctions, choose to remain silent."

Nineteen journalists detained, and convictions continue

Since the widespread crackdown on journalists covering the Woman, Life, Freedom'" movement in 2022, more than 100 media professionals have been detained because of their work, 19 of whom remain in prison. Others face protracted legal proceedings.

Journalist Mehdi Mahmoudian, arrested on 31 January, was sentenced on 13 August to eight months in prison for "propaganda against the regime" simply for reporting on the circumstances of the war on social media. His colleague, blogger Soheil Arabi, the 2017 winner of the RSF Press Freedom Award in the "citizen journalist" category, was sentenced three days later to five years in prison for "association and collusion with the aim of committing a crime against national security." Others have been released on parole, but remain at risk of being returned to prison at any time. Among them is Narges Mohammadi, the Iranian journalist, writer, and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who is currently free on medical grounds but remains regularly harassed by the authorities and threatened with imprisonment.

The repression in Iran is part of a global trend of governments weaponising national security to restrict press freedom and tighten their grip on the right to information, as documented in an RSF report. Since the start of the war in Iran in March 2026 and its repercussions across the Gulf, several regimes in the region have introduced repressive measures aimed at preventing coverage of the conflict.

Watch Yalda Moaiery's testimony here.