Other Iranian State Captured Media

This article summarises Iranian outlets that the State Media Monitor has reviewed but has not classified as state-administered, Iranian outlets classified on the published Global State Media List without a standalone profile, additional state-aligned outlets that fall outside the main 2026 database, military and paramilitary propaganda websites, online influence operations and broader 2025/26 Iran cluster developments.

The Iran cluster in the 2026 cycle therefore comprises 11 SMM-tracked outlets in total: six outlets profiled in detail and classified State-Controlled (SC) (IRIB, the Islamic Development Organization (IIDO), IRNA, Fars News Agency, ISNA and Kayhan), and five additional outlets classified Captured Private (CaPr) on the published Global State Media List under the Revolutionary Guards Media grouping, without standalone profiles in this cycle.

Outlets reviewed but not classified

The State Media Monitor has, over the past several cycles, analysed a number of Iranian news outlets that appeared to align with the criteria for captured media, but where the SMM review has not identified sufficient public or expert-confirmed evidence of direct state ownership, formal editorial interference or systematic public funding to justify a captured classification. Two examples are Resalat, a conservative daily affiliated with the Resalat Foundation that is widely identified as pro-government but for which the SMM 2025/26 review identified no verifiable evidence of state financing or formal editorial interference, and Khorshid, which was known to support former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and which falls into the same category of politically aligned but structurally and financially unverified outlets. Both remain on the SMM watch list for future cycles.

Revolutionary Guards Media classified as Captured Private (CaPr) on the SMM Global State Media List

Five Iranian publishing outlets are classified Captured Private (CaPr) on the SMM Global State Media List under the Revolutionary Guards Media grouping and have been carried in this classification continuously from 2022 through 2026. None of these outlets has a standalone profile in the main 2026 database, but their CaPr classification is published on the Global State Media List and is maintained for the 2026 cycle. The outlets are:

  • Javan, a daily newspaper widely identified as IRGC-affiliated, often described as the IRGC’s daily publication
  • Vatan Emrooz, an ultraconservative daily widely identified as hardline-aligned and operationally close to IRGC institutional positions
  • Khorasan, a Mashhad-based daily with documented operational links to IRGC-affiliated and parastatal structures
  • Quds, a Mashhad-based daily named for the Quds Day commemoration and consistently aligned with the IRGC and hardline religious-political establishment
  • Jomhouri Eslami (“Islamic Republic”), a hardline conservative daily with long-standing IRGC-aligned editorial output

These five outlets, together with Fars News Agency (classified SC and profiled separately for 2026), constitute the bulk of the SMM-tracked IRGC-aligned publishing footprint in Iran. The CaPr classification reflects that the formal ownership of these publishing operations remains nominally private or institutionally opaque, while their operational alignment with IRGC-linked structures and editorial positions is well documented across the cycles.

Other IRGC-affiliated outlets and 2026 additions to the Global State Media List

A further category includes Iranian outlets widely identified as IRGC-affiliated. The 2025/26 review concluded that two are supported by documentation comparable to that underpinning the existing Revolutionary Guards Media CaPr classifications and one is not.

Tasnim News Agency is consistently identified by the United States Department of the Treasury, United Against Nuclear Iran, the Atlantic Council and Iranian and international media analysts as one of the largest IRGC-affiliated news outlets in Iran. It publishes in Persian, English and Arabic and is grouped analytically with Fars News Agency as part of the principal IRGC-aligned news-agency footprint in the Iranian state-media landscape. The documentation supporting Tasnim’s IRGC affiliation is comparable in substance to that supporting the CaPr classification of Javan, Vatan Emrooz, Khorasan, Quds and Jomhouri Eslami. Tasnim is added to the Global State Media List as Captured Private (CaPr) under the Revolutionary Guards Media grouping for the 2026 cycle and is treated as IRGC-affiliated rather than as an IIDO-supervised outlet.

Sobh-e Sadegh, the weekly publication of the IRGC’s political directorate, is also added to the Global State Media List as Captured Private (CaPr) under the Revolutionary Guards Media grouping for the 2026 cycle. Its institutional affiliation with the IRGC is more direct than that of several of the publications already carried in the CaPr classification, being formally produced by an IRGC organisational unit rather than only operationally aligned with IRGC positions.

Mashregh News, a hardline news website widely identified as IRGC-aligned and frequently cited in international reporting on Iranian state-aligned online content, is not added to the Global State Media List in this cycle. The 2025/26 review identified insufficient public-domain documentation of formal IRGC ownership or supervision to support a CaPr classification, and the outlet remains on the SMM watch list pending further documentation in future cycles.

State-aligned outlets outside the 2026 main database

The cycle’s review identified further Iranian state-aligned outlets that warrant explicit note despite not being included in the main 2026 SMM database. Ettela’at is one of Iran’s oldest Persian-language newspapers and is often described by Iranian and international sources as aligned with, or operating under the supervision of, the Supreme-Leader institution; the SMM review concluded that Ettela’at does not yet meet the documentation threshold for inclusion in the main outlet database, although its institutional position is closer to Kayhan and IIDO than to the historically reform-leaning ISNA.

Hamshahri, the Tehran Municipality’s daily newspaper, is another candidate worth flagging for next-cycle review. Hamshahri is formally owned by Tehran Municipality (a public-sector entity), operates commercially in the Tehran print market and would not fit the Revolutionary Guards Media grouping.

Suspected state-controlled outlets with insufficient public data

A further group comprises outlets that the SMM has identified as potentially state-linked or state-controlled but for which the 2025/26 review identified insufficient public-domain documentation to support a formal classification. These outlets typically operate with limited reach or influence and remain effectively opaque even to local experts retained for the cycle. The group includes Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), Iranian Agriculture News Agency, Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) (nominally owned by a government-backed trade union), Iran Metropolises News Agency (IMNA), ICANA News Agency (the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency, linked to the Iranian Parliament’s information centre) and Pupils Association News Agency (PANA). The SMM continues to monitor these outlets and to collect information on their ownership and funding for future cycles.

Military and paramilitary propaganda sites

Several state-controlled websites are tied to military or paramilitary organisations and function as institutional communication and propaganda platforms rather than as news outlets in the conventional journalistic sense. The principal examples are Sepah News, the official news site of the IRGC; Basij News, the media arm of the Basij paramilitary force; and Defa Press, the news outlet associated with the Iranian armed forces and the Ministry of Defence. These platforms are not included as tracked outlets in the main SMM database because their primary function is institutional/military communication and propaganda rather than general-purpose journalism; their output is nevertheless relevant to understanding the broader Iranian state-aligned information environment and is referenced in the IRIB, Fars and Kayhan profiles where institutionally relevant.

Online influence operations

Iran’s online influence operations have continued to expand across the 2024 to 2026 period, with United States Treasury, intelligence-community and independent media-monitoring organisations documenting an increasingly aggressive Iranian campaign to shape political discourse abroad. In 2018, a Reuters investigation exposed the role of the International Union of Virtual Media (IUVM) in managing hundreds of proxy news portals. In 2024, the United States sanctioned Bayan Gostar, an Iran-aligned front entity alleged to be involved in orchestrating propaganda operations targeting the United States.

Two late-2024 OFAC designations reviewed during the 2025/26 cycle are relevant to Iranian online influence operations. On 27 September 2024, OFAC designated Emennet Pasargad (formerly Net Peygard Samavat) and associated individuals under Executive Order 13848 for election-interference activities targeting the 2020 and 2024 US presidential elections. On 31 December 2024, OFAC designated the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subordinate organisation of the IRGC, under Executive Order 13848 for planning influence operations designed to incite socio-political tensions among the United States electorate on behalf of the IRGC since at least 2023. The SMM 2025/26 review does not include these influence-operation entities as tracked outlets in the main database because they do not function as journalistic outlets, but their designation is consistent with the broader institutional architecture documented in the Fars News Agency profile.

June 2026

Citation (cite the article/profile as part of):
Dragomir, M. (2025). State Media Monitor Global Dataset 2025. Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17219015

This article/profile is part of the State Media Monitor Global Dataset 2025, a continuously updated dataset published by the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC).