Outlet profile

IRIB

Iranian state broadcaster

Owned byOwned and controlled by the Iranian state. The Supreme Leader appoints its director-general, and the constitution gives the post this authority. The current head is Peyman Jebelli, appointed in 2021 by Ali Khamenei. Reports say his term expires in late 2026, under the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

FundingMainly the Iranian state budget, supplemented by advertising and other state-linked revenue. A 2009 U.S. intelligence estimate put its budget at about $900 million a year. Sanctions reportedly cut it to roughly $300 million at one point, and the government has topped up its funding from the National Development Fund.

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

IRIB was created after the 1979 revolution from the former National Iranian Radio and Television, which was taken over by the new government. The 1979 constitution put broadcasting under the Supreme Leader's control and ended private radio and TV. It runs many domestic TV and radio channels, the 24-hour news channel IRINN, and external services such as Press TV, Al-Alam and HispanTV. The U.S. sanctioned IRIB in 2013 for using state media to suppress dissent. In 2022 the U.S. sanctioned several senior officials and journalists for censorship and for airing forced confessions of detainees. The EU and the UK have also imposed human-rights sanctions on IRIB figures. Israel struck IRIB's Tehran headquarters in June 2025, and Israel said in March 2026 that it had destroyed the broadcaster's headquarters, which Iranian authorities denied. After Ali Khamenei's death and Mojtaba Khamenei's rise, IRIB stressed that the state, not any one person, guarantees stability. It presents the state's account of events and carries little independent or opposition reporting. Critics and rights groups describe it as a propaganda arm of the government.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-27; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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