TEHRAN – The Israeli regime bombed the main building of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) while journalists were still in the complex covering the ongoing Iran-Israel war that began with the regime’s unprovoked aggression in the early hours of Friday.

One anchor was still delivering news when an Israeli bomb landed on the studio she was in. She returned to live broadcast minutes later at a different location, vowing to continue her job as a journalist as long as she is alive. “If I die, others will take my place and reveal your crimes to the world,” she said, maintaining a calm demeanour while looking directly at the camera.

The IRIB owns the biggest news outlet in the country. It has been actively covering Israeli attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, which could be one reason it was targeted, as its reporting challenged the Israeli regime's attempts to draw a wedge between the government and the people.

On the scene, one journalist standing outside an IRIB building engulfed in flames with smoke billowing above stated he did not know how many colleagues had been killed, but affirmed those still alive would not stop working. “If this is your way of silencing our voice, let me tell you that it will not work,” he said, his palms visibly bleeding.

Israel’s old tactic of targeting of journalists

The deliberate targeting of journalists and media infrastructure constitutes a war crime under international law. The Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court explicitly protect civilians, including journalists performing their work in conflict zones, from direct attack.

Israel has a long history of targeting journalists and media outlets across the region. In its ongoing war in Gaza, the regime has deliberately murdered over 170 Palestinian journalists – killing some in refugee tents, some in their cars while on duty, and some alongside their entire families in single strikes.

The regime targets journalists despite the existing prohibition for several reasons: to control the narrative and suppress damaging information, to silence critical reporting that exposes violations or challenges its legitimacy, to intimidate other media outlets into self-censorship, and to obscure its own actions by eliminating witnesses and independent reporting from the battlefield. Such attacks could create an information vacuum, allowing the Zionist regime to operate with less accountability.