Overview
- Lawmakers voted to approve the bill’s general framework on Sunday, August 16, creating a legal basis to ban interviews and other contacts with media Iran labels 'hostile', including U.S. and Israeli outlets.
- Draft provisions reported by multiple outlets would bar sending photos, videos or audio to foreign media, require prior notification for interviews with other foreign outlets, and set fines or social-rights restrictions for unauthorised embassy or organisational contacts.
- The measure sets criminal penalties commonly in the range of six months to two years for many violations and allows sentences up to 30 years for activity judged to be directed by foreign intelligence or harmful to national security.
- Enforcement and investigation roles in the draft are assigned to the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC’s intelligence arm, with prosecutions handled in Revolutionary Courts, a change rights groups say will speed securitized prosecutions.
- The framework still needs article-by-article approval in parliament and final review by the Guardian Council before becoming law, and critics warn the bill would deepen post‑2025 security controls and further chill journalism, research and cultural exchange.