Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

"Their aim is silence — ours is truth"
Progressive International
25 Jun 2025
🖨️ Print Article
IRIB

Statement from the Sovereign Media collective, a new coalition of anti-imperialist media organizations, on the Israeli regime's assault on journalists from Palestine to Iran.

Originally published in Progressive International.

We, the members of the Sovereign Media collective, unequivocally condemn the Zionist regime's latest escalation in its war on journalism: the targeted bombing of Iran's state broadcaster, IRIB, in central Tehran on 16 June 2025.

This calculated assault killed two media workers — Nima Rajabpour, a news editor at IRIB's Khabar channel, and Masoumeh Azimi, a secretariat staff — during a live broadcast, marking a direct attack on press freedom and the public's right to information. Moments before the airstrike, Israel's so-called Defense Minister openly threatened to "disappear" Iran's state broadcaster, and issued an evacuation warning for Tehran's Third District, indicating foreknowledge and intent.

Israel's attack is part of a broader campaign. Since 13 June, at least four Iranian journalists and media workers have been killed by US-backed Israeli airstrikes. Fereshteh Bagheri, a reporter for Defa Press, was killed when a strike targeted her family home in Tehran. Saleh Bayrami, a graphic designer, was killed two days later while crossing a city intersection. These deaths are not incidental — they are the latest acts in a deliberate strategy to eliminate those documenting Israeli war crimes.

From Iran to Palestine, this pattern is unmistakable. According to the Palestinian Journalists Protection Center (PJPC), at least 227 Palestinian journalists have been slaughtered in Gaza since October 2023 — five of them since the start of June. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists on record, with 124 journalists and media workers killed globally. Two-thirds of them were Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza.

The attack on IRIB, like the ongoing slaughter of Palestinian journalists, reflects a clear strategy: to destroy the media infrastructure, silence witnesses, and obscure war crimes. These are not just attacks on buildings or individuals — they are assaults on the people's sovereign right to report and document what is happening to their people.

Even under fire, voices remain defiant. Anchor Sahar Emami, on air during the IRIB strike, maintained her composure and resumed the broadcast amid the chaos — a symbol of the unyielding power of resistance journalism. We stand in solidarity with all journalists and truth-tellers who are under attack. We condemn this systematic targeting of media workers by the Zionist regime and its backers. We reaffirm our commitment to exposing the machinery of imperialism in West Asia and across the world. Their aim is silence — ours is to ensure these stories are heard.

SIGNATORIES

  • African Stream
  • Black Agenda Report
  • Kawsachun News
  • Orinoco Tribune
  • Qiao Collective
  • Venezuelanalysis
Iran
Journalism
Israel

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The U.S. Determination to Achieve Full Spectrum Dominance is Not In Decline
23 September 2026
The trope of the United States being in a state of decline is a common one, but it should not be accepted without scrutiny. The U.S.
Jacqueline Luqman
The Perfect Victim Narrative Applied To Foreign Policy Only Keeps U.S. Imperialism Alive
23 September 2026
The demand to call out alleged crimes in Iran or Cuba while those countries face annihilation from the U.S.
Roberta Rivolta
Western Activism and the Axis of Resistance
23 September 2026
Western pro-Palestinian activism isolates Palestine from its regional allies, depoliticizing its struggle and reinforcing colonial
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
In the same boat?
09 September 2026
BOOM goes tuna and swordfish stuffed brown burlap bags aboardboats blown to smithereens. Presto! Fishing is now narco-trafficking.
Dhoruba bin-Wahad
Guardian Foray: All That's Not Real Is Camouflage
09 September 2026
An Open Letter from the American "Left" allegedly on behalf of unnamed persons said to be Iranian political prisoners has provided co
Libertad para Fergie
Free Fergie Chambers: Solidarity Is Not a Crime
09 September 2026
Fergie Chambers is an American philanthropist who was arrested on July 10 in Ibiza, Spain, by order of the Trump Administration.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
A People(s)-Centered Human Rights Critique of “An Open Letter to Iran’s Political Prisoners”
26 August 2026
A People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework rejects the liberal abstraction that makes a false symmetry between Iranian authoritarianism and U.
Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective
AISC Red Paper #2: The Multiple Fronts of Iranian Anti-Imperialism
26 August 2026
The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC) offers an analysis of the Ramadan War and the multiple fronts of Iranian anti- imperi
Ramzy Baroud
Solidarity Is Not Enough
19 August 2026
Why the world must force accountability on Gaza now.
Hedelberto López Blanch
A Shady Figure Will Preside Over Colombia
19 August 2026
Colombia's new president has ties to paramilitaries and drug traffickers, but Trump's endorsement swept his crimes aside as he embraces Washing

More Stories


  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 21, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 21, 2020
    22 Dec 2020
    Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power Meets African Liberation
  •  Sex was Central to Dutch West Indies Anti-Colonial Politics
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Sex was Central to Dutch West Indies Anti-Colonial Politics
    22 Dec 2020
    Sexual issues were loudly debated among anti-colonial activists in the Dutch Caribbean colonies of Curaçao and Aruba, said Chelsea Shields, a history professor at the City Universi
  •  “Colonial Logics” Remained for Black Women in “Liberated” Zimbabwe
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    “Colonial Logics” Remained for Black Women in “Liberated” Zimbabwe
    22 Dec 2020
    Black women “posed a problem” for the Black government that replaced white rule in Zimbabwe, because their bodies were thought to “disturb urban space,” said Rudo Mudiwa, a PhD in
  •  Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power Meets African Liberation
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power Meets African Liberation
    22 Dec 2020
    In the political hotbed that was Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1967, US Black Power advocate Stokely Carmichael, who had not yet changed his name to Kwame Ture, made both friends and enemies among th
  • You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
    17 Dec 2020
    The Black misleaders have been busy selling out Black people for half a century, but are still only barely tolerated by the rich man’s Democratic Party and its racist figurehead, Joe Biden.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us