Protesters managed to hack the satellite transmission of Iran’s state television this Sunday (18) and displayed messages against the Islamic regime during official programming. The interference lasted a few minutes and affected channels controlled by the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the company responsible for the broadcasting monopoly in the country.
According to the exiled opposition, the attack against IRIB took place through the Badr satellite, used by the company to distribute the state signal. The images shown included messages in Persian encouraging the continuation of the protests and excerpts from a speech by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, calling on the population to mobilize against the regime.
According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN Newsthe transmission of the message against the regime began at around 9:30 pm (local time) and remained on the air for approximately ten minutes. The content was quickly shared on social media and published by Pahlavi’s communications team on the X social network.
The American agency Associated Press reported that the Iranian state company acknowledged a momentary signal interruption in “some areas of the country”, attributed to an unknown source, without detailing the content displayed during the failure.
The episode occurs amid a wave of protests that began at the end of December and the intensification of repression by the Islamic regime. According to the NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 3,919 people have already died during the actions of security forces, a number that could be higher due to restrictions imposed by the Iranian government on the circulation of information.
