A festival organized by Iran's US-sanctioned stated broadcaster has brought American, European and other international journalists and activists to Iran where they expressed solidarity with the Islamic Republic following a 12-day war with Israel.
The four-day event, held from July 17 to 21 under the slogan "Condemnation of Terrorism Against Media," is hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), whose headquarters was bombed by Israel during its military assault on Iran.
American journalists and activists including Calla Walsh and Jennifer Koonings appear in videos and photos shared on the festival’s official X account, in which they voice support for Iran and criticize US foreign policy.
“Living in the United States, we’re constantly fed negative propaganda about places like Iran, portraying them as evil. But it’s so ridiculous that if you have two functioning brain cells, you know none of it is true," said New York-based journalist Koonings, speaking in front of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) drone.
"The US empire is the most criminal and evil entity on the planet,” she added.
Both IRIB and the IRGC are on the United States sanctions list.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to be visiting the Islamic Republic of Iran right now, at this moment, while it is under genocidal siege by the United States and the Zionist entity,” said Boston-based activist Calla Walsh, standing at the IRGC aerospace expo, with missiles in the background.
Iran's outreach to radical influencers
Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the US-based advocacy group UANI, says the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian intelligence services "have experience using conferences or junkets as a recruitment lure for Americans on the far left and right."
Entities like Sobh Festival are "trying to make inroads with radical US-based influencers and those individuals... with whom Iran's regime feels an ideological comradery," Brodsky said on X, urging the US policymakers and law enforcement to be vigilant.
The US state department this week launched a campaign urging US citizens not to visit Iran. Nationals from Britain, France and Germany among others are currently in Iranian detention, in moves condemned by their governments.
Other festival participants include activists, filmmakers, and journalists from the UK, Spain, Germany, Canada, Venezuela, and Brazil.
Attendees have been taken to locations attacked during Israel’s 12-day campaign.
In another video posted on X, German filmmaker Andreas Landeck is shown speaking through a translator. A male voice asks in Persian, “What are you seeing through your lens about these crimes?" to which Landeck responds: “I tried to find the personal belongings.”
Iran continues to be ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom.
According to Reporters Without Borders, “Iran has reinforced its position as one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom, with journalists and independent media constantly persecuted through arbitrary arrests and harsh sentences handed down after unfair trials before revolutionary courts.”
In June, the IRGC detained the family member of an Iran International anchor in Tehran to pressure the journalist to stop working with the network, in a move condemned by the network.
Two female journalists who covered the 2022 death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini in morality police custody spent 17 months in prison.
Amini’s death sparked widespread protests across Iran and drew international condemnation. The unrest and media coverage of them was violently quashed.
