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In late June, amid Israel and Iran’s twelve-day exchange of air strikes and rockets, Iranian authorities detained the family of a journalist who was covering the conflict from abroad. The reporter, whose name was not released by the outlet they worked for, a London-based Farsi broadcast news channel called Iran International, said they received a phone call from their father, who urged them to resign, with the voices of security agents audible in the background. In a statement, the channel said the arrests marked “a dangerous escalation in the regime’s ruthless campaign to silence dissent and suppress independent journalism.”

For journalists who cover Iran, this kind of tactic is nothing new—although the risks appear to be escalating. Earlier this month, Iran’s parliament approved legislation that would impose prison sentences of up to five years for sending images to foreign media outlets—a punishment that could be upped to twenty-five years during times of war. Another recent bill prohibits the sharing of anything deemed “false information” on social media. Several reporters working for official outlets have been warned to limit what they post online or face repercussions, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Iran Window—a pseudonym for a Tehran-based freelance reporter for the news startup Noosphere—has already faced threats and imprisonment during their more than two decades of work, as a writer and documentary filmmaker. Some of their friends don’t even know what they do for a living. But they are determined to continue. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

What is it like to report in Iran right now?

During all of the demonstrations we had before, like with the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement a few years ago, you could always pick up a camera, you could make a report, you could go online and share what was happening. But in this situation now, it’s different. Even taking one photo can lead to accusations of spying, or being considered an enemy of society or enemy of the country. The security level is really high. There are now checkpoints where they try to control what you have on your phone. Besides checking your identity and your vehicle, they also demand to inspect your devices, which is a clear violation of personal privacy. They stop you and ask you to open your phone to see your photo gallery. That is new. So I feel much more isolated now and in this state where I don’t even know if it’s worth dealing with. I mean, we will deal with it. We’ve always found a way. But you have to be very, very careful. 

You’re talking about independent journalism in particular, right? 

We have a different type of journalism ecosystem here. We have journalists who are working with the government—they have access to everything, to go everywhere. Then we have journalists that work with foreign outlets but who are approved by the government. They have a special card, a specific type of ID that they always have to carry on them. They don’t work for the government, but the government tells them how they should report on Iran, what to show to the outside. 

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And then you have independent journalists like me. And it’s really difficult for us as independent journalists. You have to make difficult decisions, like do you use your name and accept the risk, or do you stay in the shadows and just try to report on what is going on? 

It’s crazy, but some of [the government-approved journalists] are my friends. Even if they don’t agree with all of that, they have to follow the rules or they’ll lose their card. And that leads to things like, for example, when one major Western outlet came here recently to cover the war, the woman who was reporting was wearing a hijab that isn’t the normal one that Iranian women wear—it was a much more conservative hijab. She looked like a radical religious person, which is an exaggerated representation of what life is actually like here. 

I suppose it’s obvious, then, why you’ve chosen to remain anonymous. Has that been hard?

Everyone has an ego, and everyone likes to attach their name to their reports or their photos. But you have to balance that with your personal interests and goals. You can’t walk both sides here. In Iran, if you say, “Okay, I’m going to talk truth to power,” and you use your name, we know what will happen. They will arrest you, they will put you under the spotlight, try to control you and harass you. And that makes it really hard to work. And the idea that you can use your name but also hide today, it’s just not true. So the easiest way to do this work, to continue to do this work, is to remain anonymous. 

You have personal experience with what happens when you don’t remain anonymous, right?

I was arrested in 2012 for a documentary that I made. They kept me in solitary confinement for months, and then they sentenced me to six years in prison for propaganda against the system, and for insulting Islam. I ended up serving a year in prison and then was on house arrest for almost three years. 

What was the reaction among Iranians to the recent twelve-day war with Israel? 

This war, the experience of it, was different because, for the first time in a while, people experienced a conflict that affected their lives directly, with the air strikes and bombs. So you have to ask yourself, Is this a sacrifice that is worth it? And the reaction was mainly that we don’t want this war. Especially given the country that was attacking Tehran. People here are not happy that someone like Netanyahu is coming and saying, “I’m giving you freedom.” No one was accepting that. The bombs were not bringing democracy. They were just destroying the infrastructure, destroying the lands, and after that you’re by yourself to rebuild your house and deal with all of these problems that war brings. They would rather deal with this regime in their own way, in the form of demonstrations. They prefer to die in demonstrations than in attacks like these. 

I believe that, like the rest of the world, Iranian people deserve a peaceful nuclear program that helps grow the economy and benefits other sectors like healthcare, infrastructure, agriculture, and so on. There’s only a small minority who believe that having a nuclear bomb, like other countries do, is necessary. For the Iranian regime, the nuclear program is a means to maintain power. They know their time is running out, so they’re trying to create leverage and scare the EU and the United States on the world stage. 

The people of Iran have shown that they are peaceful and don’t want conflict with the world. What is most important to the Iranian people is the deteriorating economic conditions, which are getting worse every day. And the nuclear program is only contributing to it. Over the past thirty years, it has cost us billions, and the people here have seen no real benefits.

How does speaking to a mostly Western audience influence your reporting? And are there misconceptions that you feel Westerners have about Iran and Iranians?

Misconceptions exist. Unfortunately, they do exist. Life is actually pretty modern here. I remember when I went to France back in 2017, the guy who I stayed with thought he needed to explain how an ATM machine works. You think we don’t have ATMs in Tehran? And I think that perception persists because of how Western media portrays Iran. It’s often this clichéd picture of a barbaric place or a backwards place or a bad place. The regime here is nasty and it’s backwards, but the system is not the people. So when I’m talking to a Western audience, I try to give them a different perspective, to not feed into the stereotypes.

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