The head of Iran's state broadcaster conceded the network hurt its credibility with a false report on the downing of an Israeli F-35 fighter jet which cited an official source during a June war.
“In the F-35 fighter jet crash case, an official informed us it had happened, and we reported it exactly as given,” Peyman Jebeli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said in a speech at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on Tuesday.
“Were we in the sky to know an F-35 had crashed? Were we behind the air defenses to know we hit an F-35? An official military authority informed us that it had happened, and we reflected it exactly as given. Later, for some reasons, they realized the information was not reliable,” he added.
On June 13, news spread in Iranian media that Iran had targeted an Israeli F-35 fighter jet and captured the Israeli female pilot. Locations such as Varamin, Tabriz and Kermanshah were cited as crash sites. Israel swiftly denied the reports.
“Yes, the media should not tie its credibility to other institutions, but when vital information is held by them, we have no choice but to operate within that framework,” Jebeli said.
On June 14, state TV aired the news, saying, “The Air Defense Force successfully struck and destroyed two F-35 fighter jets of the Zionist regime.” More than four days later, IRIB confirmed the report was not correct, offering no further explanation.
Asked about official polls on alleging the buoyant popularity of state TV inside Iran, Jebeli said that no polls had been fabricated but viewership is steadily declining.
“We never claimed our audience surged. The downward trend in viewership has continued since the early 2010s, though its slope has slowed,” he added.
