A newly surfaced official document from Iran offers a rare glimpse into the Islamic Republic’s paranoia and surveillance apparatus. Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence has compiled a detailed list of entities it defines as “hostile” to the regime, including dozens of media outlets, journalists, researchers, leading advocacy activists, and influential social media accounts—alongside international news organizations.
Topping the list of media outlets marked as enemies by the Iranian regime are Israel’s three main television channels: Channel 12, followed by Channel 13 and Channel 14. Immediately after them appear BBC Persian, Iran International, Voice of America Persian, Radio Farda, and Iran Wire.
The list of individuals also includes well-known Israeli names: Amit Segal, Yossi Melman, Yosef Haddad, Emily Schrader, Dr. Edi Cohen, Dr. Eli David, Menashe Amir, Raz Zimmt, and Naftali Hanania, the Foreign Ministry’s Persian-language spokesman.
The list also includes a series of Israel’s official digital assets, among them the “Israel in Persian” accounts, the IDF spokesman in Persian, the Prime Minister’s Office in Persian, the Mossad website, and the Mossad’s Persian-language account. Alongside them, the regime marked prominent Israeli research institutes, including the Institute for National Security Studies, the Begin-Sadat Center, the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the Mitvim Institute, and the Moshe Dayan Center.
The law stipulates that transferring information, photos, or videos to entities on the list—as well as cooperating with them in media, political, or propaganda activities defined as harming national security—can lead to lengthy prison sentences and permanent disqualification from public service. In the most severe cases, defendants can be charged with “spreading corruption on earth,” one of the gravest offenses under Iranian law, punishable by death.