Iran’s parliament voted on Tuesday, October 6, to make it a crime for Iranians to give interviews to media outlets the Ministry of Intelligence labels “hostile.”

Meeting in a virtual open session, lawmakers approved Article 22 of a bill titled “Countering Foreign Infiltration,” state-aligned outlets including Nour News and Javan reported. Under the article, Iranian nationals are banned from giving interviews to, or taking part in conversations with, any outlet or individual “media personality” that the intelligence ministry designates as mo’aned (“hostile”) and announces publicly. The ban also covers outlets owned, managed or funded by agents linked to what the bill calls “level one or level two” foreign states, unless the law’s procedures are followed. Iranian media reported that interviews with other foreign media will require notifying a system run by the intelligence ministry.

Violations carry grade-six punishments under Article 19 of the Islamic Penal Code, a category that includes prison terms of six months to two years, fines and flogging. Officials are exempt. The measure still needs the approval of the Guardian Council to become law.

Analysis: an information blockade, written into law

The most important word in the article is not “hostile.” It is “designates.” The power to decide which journalism is a crime goes to the Ministry of Intelligence, the agency responsible for hunting down dissent. There is no court ruling, no appeal and no definition, only a list the ministry can expand at will.

The target is obvious. Through the January uprising and the war, the main channel by which the world learned what was happening inside Iran was ordinary Iranians speaking to Persian-language outlets abroad: eyewitnesses, families of the executed, workers describing unpaid wages. This article criminalizes that channel. The exemption for officials makes the purpose plain. The state may speak to anyone; its citizens may speak only to those it approves.

It also fits a pattern. In the same week, the judiciary hanged three January protesters and its chief warned officials not to anger the people. A leadership confident of public support does not need to make an interview a crime.