State-Controlled Media OrganizationsIran’s state-controlled media has played a key role in the regime’s suppression of protests, including those following the death of Mahsa Amini. Many of these organizations work in tandem with Iranian security and intelligence services, blurring the lines between government and media and extending the regime’s oppressive reach. Press TV is the English language channel for the state broadcaster of the Iranian government, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which was designated by the United States in 2013 for participating in censorship. Press TV has broadcasted scores of forced confessions and derogatory programs about Iranian activists, in many cases broadcasting forced confessions before detainee trials. Press TV has also been used by Iranian intelligence services to recruit sensitive assets, including U.S. persons. Press TV is being designed pursuant to E.O. 13846 for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, the IRIB. Tasnim News Agency (Tasnim) is a news outlet founded by two IRGC commanders, Majid Gholizadeh and Hamidreza Moghadam Far, who continue to serve as Tasnim executives and exert control over Tasnim on behalf of the IRGC. Tasnim has supported the IRGC and other instruments of the regime in various ways, including suppressing dissent by helping the IRGC, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and LEF to crowdsource the identities of protestors. Majid Gholizadeh, a former IRGC Commander, is Tasnim’s CEO, an important spokesperson for the news agency, and IRGC propagandist. Hamidreza Moghadam Far is the head of the Tasnim board of directors and an IRGC Commander. Hamidreza Moghadam Far has held multiple prominent roles in the IRGC, including as an advisor to IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami and the Cultural Deputy of the IRGC.  Tasnim is being designated pursuant to E.O 13553 for being owned or controlled by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, the IRGC. Hamidreza Moghadam Far is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13553 for acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the IRGC. Majid Gholizadeh is being designated for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Tasnim News Agency.Fars News Agency is closely affiliated with the IRGC and has provided special intelligence reports to Hossein Salami. Fars News Agency closely coordinated with the Basij Resistance Force (Basij) deputy commander on ongoing Iranian domestic concerns. The Basij, a paramilitary force subordinate to the IRGC, was designated pursuant to E.O. 13553 on June 9, 2011 for its involvement in the violent crackdowns and serious human rights abuses occurring in Iran following the disputed June 2009 presidential election. Fars News Agency was also founded by Hamidreza Moghadam Far, and its board of directors is chaired by Mohammad Mehdi Sayyari Zahan, the U.S.-designated deputy head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization. Payam Tirandaz is the CEO of Fars News Agency, a former member of the Basij, and a former employee of IRIB. Payam Tirandaz plays a pivotal role in Fars News Agency’s support to the IRGC’s malign activities. Fars News Agency is being designated pursuant to E.O 13553, for being owned or controlled by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of the IRGC. Payam Tirandaz is being designated for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Fars News Agency.

September 15, 2023 WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating 29 individuals and entities in connection with the Iranian regime’s violent suppression of nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini in custody of its ‘Morality Police,’ and the regime’s continued efforts to detain dissenting voices and restrict access to a free and open internet. OFAC’s action targets: 18 key members of the regime’s security forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF); the head of Iran’s Prisons Organization; three individuals and one company in connection with the regime’s systematic censorship and blocking of access to the internet; and three IRGC and regime-controlled media outlets––Fars News, Tasnim News and Press TV––and three senior officials. Today’s action is taken in coordination with partners from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and other partners who are also imposing sanctions on those involved in the Iranian regime’s repression.“As we approach one year since Mahsa Amini’s tragic and senseless death in the custody of Iran’s so-called ‘Morality Police,’ we recall that the movement of men and women across Iran, inclusive of different faiths and ethnic groups, was met with horrific violence, mass incarceration, and systemic internet disruption by the Iranian regime,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson. “The United States, alongside the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and our other international allies and partners, will continue to take collective action against those who suppress Iranians’ exercise of their human rights.”Today’s sanctions are OFAC’s 13th round of designations in connection with the protests that began in September 2022 and are taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13553, which imposes sanctions on certain persons with respect to serious human rights abuses by the Government of Iran; E.O. 13846, which authorizes sanctions on persons who engage in censorship or other activities with respect to Iran; and the counterterrorism authority E.O. 13224, as amended.  Concurrently, the Department of State is imposing visa restrictions on 13 Iranian officials and other individuals for their involvement in the detention or killing of peaceful protestors or inhibiting their rights to freedom of expression or assembly, including through censorship via a country-wide internet shutdown in Iran. Since Mahsa Amini’s death and the protests that followed, the Department of State has imposed visa restrictions on 40 Iranian officials and other individuals for their involvement in acts targeting peaceful protestors.