Iran summons families of exiled journalists to halt their activities

"Iran and the US are at a fateful point in time: We can achieve a fair and equitable deal to ensure no nuclear weapons," Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on his X.

"This mutually beneficial outcome is possible even in a short period of time."

"On the other hand, there may be miscalculation and even aggression. Iran is equally prepared for that scenario," he added.

The public anger erupted after a host on Ofogh TV, a channel operated by Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB and affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, referred to reports that thousands killed during the January 8–9 crackdown were transported in refrigerated trailers.

Addressing viewers, he asked sarcastically: “What type of refrigerator do you think the Islamic Republic keeps the bodies in?”

He then offered mock multiple-choice answers, including a “side-by-side fridge,” an “ice cream machine,” and a “supermarket freezer,” before adding a fourth option in a joking tone: “I’m an ice seller—don’t ruin my business.”

For many Iranians, the episode has become a stark illustration of a state media apparatus increasingly detached from the pain, grief, and anger of the society it claims to represent.

The remarks were widely shared on social media and immediately drew condemnation from across Iran’s political and social spectrum. Many users accused the program of dehumanizing the dead and humiliating grieving families.

Removal of network director

Following the backlash, Iran’s state broadcaster announced that Sadegh Yazdani, the director of Ofogh TV, had been removed for what it described as “disrespect toward those killed in the January protests.” The program was pulled from the air.

Mohammad Reza Javadi-Yeganeh, a sociology professor at the University of Tehran, wrote that dissatisfaction with IRIB was one of the rare issues uniting an otherwise deeply polarized society. “In this organization,” he wrote, “neither human life nor blood has sanctity.”

Journalist Sina Jahani went further, writing: “For even one frame of this broadcast, not only the director of Ofogh TV but the head of IRIB himself must be immediately dismissed.”

IRIB, headed by Peyman Jebelli, is widely viewed as dominated by hardliners linked to the ultra-conservative Paydari (Steadfastness) Party and figures close to Saeed Jalili, the supreme leader’s representative on the Supreme National Security Council.

Calls for the removal of IRIB chief

While the Ofogh TV director was removed, the fate of IRIB’s leadership remains entirely in the hands of Iran’s supreme leader, who appoints and oversees the broadcaster’s chief. Many users expressed skepticism that deeper accountability would follow.

Journalist Seyed Ali Pourtabatabaei argued that even Jebelli’s removal would be insufficient. “If any other media outlet had done this, it would have been immediately shut down and prosecuted,” he wrote, adding that he held little hope such action would actually occur in this case.

Another user wrote on X: ‘The person who must order change—the leader—apparently believes any change demanded by people or elites is weakness.’”

Conservative alarm over public anger

The mocking tone of the Ofogh TV host also angered conservative figures who warned that such rhetoric risks inflaming public rage and prolonging unrest.

Conservative journalist Ali Gholhaki wrote: “By mocking the martyrs and those killed on January 8 and 9, state TV is setting fire to the hearts of their parents. What exactly must happen in Iran for officials to decide to change course? Do we want to see people back on the streets again?”

Strategic analyst Hossein Ghatib stressed that such broadcasts are never accidental. “An item like this passes through multiple editorial and supervisory filters,” he wrote. “When you knowingly air it, the aim is not a mistake or bad taste—it is a direct assault on the dignity of thousands of grieving families. This is not stupidity or moral collapse; it is betrayal.”

Ghatib compared the outrage to a pivotal media miscalculation before Iran’s 1979 revolution, when an article attacking Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was published in the newspaper Ettela’at. Historians widely regard that piece as a strategic error that ignited mass protests and helped accelerate the fall of the monarchy.

“This program follows the same dangerous logic: provoking public sentiment,” Ghatib wrote. “Why deliberately mess with collective memory and pain?”

A crisis of trust

The incident has reignited long-standing criticism of IRIB, whose head is appointed and overseen directly by the supreme leader and which receives substantial public funding. Despite this, official surveys show that large segments of the population distrust its news coverage, relying instead on foreign-based Persian-language media.

Critics say IRIB routinely insults and discredits opponents, airs coerced confessions, and broadcasts allegations of foreign ties against dissenters. Recent attempts by the broadcaster to discredit a widely shared video showing a father searching for his son’s body among hundreds of victims instead backfired, further eroding its credibility.

Asked about Khamenei’s remarks warning of a possible regional war in the event of a US attack on Iran, Trump told reporters, "Why wouldn't he say that? Of course you can say that. But we have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world, over there, very close, couple of days."

"Hopefully we'll make a deal. We don't make a deal, then we'll find out whether or not he was right."

For families searching for wounded protesters in Iran’s latest crackdown, hospitals have offered no refuge—only dead ends.

One such case was described by the Wall Street Journal in a report on Sunday, which recounted the final hours of a teenage protester identified as Sam, shot and then taken away while still alive.

According to the paper, a medic told Sam’s family that he was “in critical condition being treated for a single gunshot wound in the back of his head,” before security forces arrived and removed him along with other patients.

The medic urged the family to look elsewhere. “The medic advised them to check the morgues,” Sam’s father, Parviz, said, according to the report.

They found him days later. “They found him inside a body bag on Jan. 11 with a second bullet wound that tore through half of his face and made him almost unrecognizable,” Parviz told the Journal.

The second shot—delivered after medical care had begun—was not an act of mercy. It was finalization.

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For families searching for wounded protesters in Iran’s latest crackdown, hospitals have offered no refuge—only dead ends.

One such case was described by the Wall Street Journal in a report on Sunday, which recounted the final hours of a teenage protester identified as Sam, shot and then taken away while still alive.

According to the paper, a medic told Sam’s family that he was “in critical condition being treated for a single gunshot wound in the back of his head,” before security forces arrived and removed him along with other patients.

The medic urged the family to look elsewhere. “The medic advised them to check the morgues,” Sam’s father, Parviz, said, according to the report.

They found him days later. “They found him inside a body bag on Jan. 11 with a second bullet wound that tore through half of his face and made him almost unrecognizable,” Parviz told the Journal.

The second shot—delivered after medical care had begun—was not an act of mercy. It was finalization.

Similar accounts have emerged from Karaj, west of Tehran, where witnesses told Iran International that armed forces surrounded hospitals following days of mass killings and resistance.

Witnesses speaking to Iran International on the condition of anonymity report the abduction of wounded protesters from hospitals and the execution of injured people who were unable to move.

A Karaj taxi driver, who said he witnessed the violence firsthand, described security forces loading both dead and wounded protesters into trucks without distinction.

“Even the wounded were not separated from the dead. They piled everyone together. Someone injured like that will die anyway,” he said.

A photo received by Iran International showed the body of a deceased protester at Kahrizak morgue south of Tehran with his hands bound.

In the image, the man’s body is seen inside a black body bag typically used for those killed, with his hands tied and placed on his abdomen.

The image appeared to show that the citizen was in the custody of security forces at the time of his death and that he died while in detention.

Other witnesses said the killings continued inside medical facilities. One source told Iran International that agents used suppressed weapons. “That person was crying and saying they were shooting the wounded with silenced guns,” the witness said, describing what was explicitly referred to as a finishing shot.

Hospitals including Ghasem Soleimani, Kasra and Takht-e Jamshid were placed under armed lockdown, according to eyewitness reports, with families barred from entry and medical staff working under threat.

One healthcare worker said more than 400 people killed during January 8-9 were brought to Karaj hospitals alone.

The practice has been documented elsewhere. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center previously reported that one wounded protester, terrified of being executed in hospital, remained motionless for three days inside a plastic body bag used for transporting corpses. His family eventually located him alive in Kahrizak.

In Karaj, fear of those final shots drove families to keep bodies hidden at home rather than risk official channels. According to reports and accounts obtained by Iran International, authorities halted burials, closed morgues, and restricted funerals to a single family member, firing shots into the air to disperse mourners.

What emerges from these accounts is not chaos but method.

Wounded protesters—those who survived initial gunfire—appear to have been treated as liabilities. Removing them from hospitals, or killing them outright, ensured that testimony would not survive.

Sam’s father said his son had dreamed of studying information technology in Germany, where he planned to reunite with him. Instead, he was shot once, treated, and then shot again.

The second bullet did what the first did not.