Trump should reprimand and sanction IRIB, Fars, Tasnim, and IRNA: Foundation for Defense of Democracies
President Trump’s administration should sanction Iranian state-controlled media outlets, including the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation, Fars News Agency, Tasnim News Agency, and the Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA), for their actions during recent anti-regime protests and facilitating human rights abuses.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an influential Washington think tank that researches national security and foreign policy issues, raised this issue in a policy report released on Tuesday.
The foundation's report states, "During the public protests against the regime, the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation (Sada Vasima) printed and made available to the public individual photos of the protesters, asking them to identify the protesters and introduce them to the security services so that action could be taken to arrest them."
Protesters detained in prison have been systematically mistreated and harassed, in some cases leading to the deaths of detainees, and the regime has attributed their deaths to "suicide in custody."
According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Tasnim News Agency published photos of the protesters and asked the public to identify them. Tasnim then published forced confessions from the detainees.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies report notes that "both Tasnim and Fars news agencies are under the control of the Revolutionary Guard Corps," adding that "Fars News Agency has access to prisons under the control of the IRGC and has repeatedly attempted to publish forced confessions from prisoners."
The Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA), which is part of the executive branch, has also acted in a way that has not been subject to sanctions, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Despite publishing threatening and insulting comments,
IRNA "has representations in foreign countries, and if it is exposed to US sanctions, there is a possibility that the representations will be closed."
The Islamic Republic of Iran Radio and Television and its CEO have been on the US Treasury Department's sanctions list since 2013, but the sanctions are suspended every six months because Iran has agreed to refrain from jamming foreign satellites that broadcast programs to Iranians.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies report "cites abundant evidence that Iran continues to broadcast terrestrial jamming on satellite waves instead of jamming," and calls on the White House to not suspend the sanctions on the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation (Sadav Sima) and to place three Iranian state-run news agencies on the US Treasury Department's sanctions list.
The foundation's report states, "Now is the time to lift the suspension of the sanctions on the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation and punish state-run news agencies that contribute to human rights violations in Iran, and to place the names of the partners of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation - Tasnim News Agency, Fars News Agency, and IRNA - on the sanctions list."
The report was prepared by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies experts, Richard Goldberg, former deputy chief of staff to Senator Mark Kirk, and Saeed Ghassemi-Nejad.
Source: Voice of America
