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State media breaks silence on Khamenei's death
Iranian state television confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the morning of 1 March, nearly 12 hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had already announced it publicly. Until then, officials had refused to comment, dismissing reports as "baseless rumours" while urging citizens to trust government sources.
Controlled narrative in wartime
Since the outbreak of hostilities-reportedly claiming over 1,200 lives in Iran and expanding into Lebanon and Gulf Arab states-Iran's state media has crafted a selective version of events for domestic audiences. While millions access foreign Persian-language satellite channels, internet blackouts, censorship, and restricted access have isolated much of the population from independent reporting.
The BBC's review of Iranian state media coverage during the first week of the conflict found a focus on civilian suffering, calls for retaliation against "enemies," and appeals for public loyalty to the Islamic Republic. Military strikes on government and military sites by Israel and the US received minimal attention.
Disinformation and inflated claims
Iran's state media has repeatedly disseminated exaggerated or false information. On 3 March, the semi-official Tasnim news agency, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed Iranian forces had killed 650 US military personnel in the war's first two days. The Pentagon had confirmed only six US deaths at the time, later revising the toll to 13 by 13 March.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks Iran among the world's most repressive countries for press freedom. Since the 1979 revolution, all media operate under strict state control, with Western and Persian-language outlets like BBC Persian banned from reporting inside the country.
AI-generated propaganda
State media has increasingly turned to artificial intelligence to bolster its narrative. Press TV, Iran's English-language news channel, shared a now-deleted Facebook post featuring a video of a burning high-rise, falsely claiming it showed an Iranian attack on Bahrain. Analysis revealed the footage was AI-generated, with anomalies like merging cars.
"The use of AI forgeries by major state media outlets, even those with a history of bending the truth, is striking. This appears to be a deliberate strategy in their war reporting," said Brett Schafer of the UK-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
While much of the AI content circulating on social media remains unattributed, the BBC has identified multiple instances of hyper-realistic or glorified imagery shared by Iranian government outlets since the conflict began.
Truth amid distortion
Iran's state media has a history of blending fact with fiction, eroding trust among critics. On 3 March, it reported that over 160 children and staff died in a strike on a school-likely a US operation targeting a nearby military base-and shared an aerial photo of a mass funeral. Opponents alleged the image was AI-generated, but the BBC geolocated it to a cemetery 3.7 km from the school, confirming its authenticity through satellite imagery.
"We must hold two truths: the regime often suppresses evidence of its abuses, but it also documents civilian casualties extensively during war. That doesn't automatically make the reports false," said Mahsa Alimardani of human rights organisation Witness.
Alimardani advises approaching Iran's state media with "healthy scepticism," noting its dual role as both propagandist and, at times, a recorder of verifiable events.
