Iran remains one of the world’s worst countries for abusing detained journalists, with reporters subjected to torture and harsh prison conditions amid intensified repression following nationwide protests, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Fragments of what has unfolded in Iran over the past two weeks are beginning to emerge from beneath a near-total internet blackout, revealing killings that have largely remained hidden from public view.
The protests that erupted across Iran in January 2026 may have appeared sudden to outside observers but inside the country, they were anything but.
The unprecedented brutal crackdown on recent protests in Iran suggests Tehran's rulers are no longer attempting to govern a discontented society but are in open conflict with it.
After the January 8-9 mass killing of protestors in Iran, state media broadcasts fresh snow falls and other serene scenes bearing little resemblance to the agony of many Iranians reeling from the historic violence.
Iran's foreign minister said the country was prepared to show no restraint in retaliating to any military attack and mocked Europe about its standoff with the United States over President Donald Trump's push to control Greenland.
The thank-you note from US President Donald Trump to Iran’s leadership for halting what he described as planned mass executions reveals much about his politics, but more about the rulers in Tehran who have canonised deception as a political instrument.
Iranians abroad staged at least 168 protests across 30 countries and 73 cities, turning the uprising inside Iran into a global wave of demonstrations that surged after internet shutdowns.
A serving official at Iran’s Interior Ministry has defected from his post and joined the protests, urging US President Donald Trump to intervene against the Islamic Republic, he said in a message to Iran International.
Iranians calling Iran International’s phone-in said security forces killed and removed bodies; some reported families pressured into quiet burials and Arabic-speaking forces on the streets, as the crackdown pushed protests to window chants and fueled calls for foreign backing.
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
I am writing this from Tehran after three days of trying to find a way to send it: things may get a lot worse before they get any better.
There is a cruel ritual in Iranian opposition politics: some voices abroad constantly interrogate the “purity” of activists inside—why they did not speak more sharply or endorse maximalist slogans, why survival itself looks insufficiently heroic.
