The first reports appeared in foreign media, beyond the reach of most Iranians

On February 28, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that there were “indications that the tyrant is no longer here,” suggesting that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been killed in a joint US-Israeli attack. However, Iranians watching state television were met with complete silence.

Government officials neither confirmed nor denied Khamenei's death. On one of the channels of the state broadcaster IRTV3, a news anchor urged viewers to "trust" him and the government's "latest information." He dismissed reports of Khamenei's death as "unfounded rumors" that would "soon be revealed."

It was not until the following morning that Iranian state media reported on Khamenei's death, hours after US President Trump announced it publicly on social media.

Since the beginning of the war, which, according to government sources, has caused the death of more than 1,200 people in Iran and has spread to Lebanon and the Arab Gulf States, Iranian state media have mixed facts with fiction, presenting an official version of events to their national audience.

Although millions of Iranians follow Persian-language satellite television channels based abroad, accessing independent information can be difficult. Internet shutdowns, censorship, and channel restrictions keep Iranians virtually cut off from the outside world amidst unrest and conflict.

The BBC followed the first week of Iranian state media coverage of the war and found that they focused their reporting on the suffering of the civilian population, calls for retaliation against their “enemies” and the promotion of public loyalty to the Islamic Republic, paying little attention to the military and government facilities attacked by Israel and the United States.

We also found examples of misinformation.

Iran's media apparatus

According to Reporters Without Borders, Iran is one of the most repressive countries in the world in terms of press freedom

Since the 1979 revolution, which established the Islamic Republic of Iran, all media outlets have operated under strict restrictions. Most Western media outlets with Persian-language news platforms, including the BBC Persian Service, are prohibited from reporting from the country.

While the regime's main platforms are television and radio, they also operate online through news websites and networks such as Instagram, Telegram, and X. Accessing these social media platforms from Iran generally requires a virtual private network (VPN).

Its media apparatus has become the main source of information for the country's population, especially when internet access is interrupted.

“They promote a narrative,” says Mahsa Alimardani of the human rights organization Witness. “They present themselves as victorious and claim that their army is very strong.”

Numerous Iranian state media outlets have reported that Iranian forces killed or wounded hundreds of US soldiers, thus inflating the number of enemy casualties.

On March 3, the Tasnim news agency, a semi-official agency linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that 650 US military personnel had been killed in the first two days of the war. Their source was an IRGC spokesman.

The news was reported by international media outlets in countries such as India, Turkey, and Nigeria.

At that time, the Pentagon confirmed the deaths of six US soldiers. On March 13, US Central Command confirmed the deaths of seven more US service members.

Distorting Reality

New technologies are also helping state media spread propaganda

In a Facebook post, which was later deleted, the state-run English-language news channel Press TV shared a video of a building on fire, with plumes of smoke rising into the sky.

“Smoke rises from a skyscraper in Bahrain after the Iranian attack,” the description read.

But a closer analysis revealed unusual details in the video, such as two cars that appeared to merge into one, a sign that the video was fake and had been created with artificial intelligence.

“While the use of AI-generated content in war propaganda is not new, the use of AI-powered deepfakes by mainstream state media, including those not exactly known for sticking to the truth, is striking,” says Brett Schafer, director of the Strategic Dialogue Institute, a UK-based think tank. “The repeated use of deepfakes by Iranian state media suggests that this is a feature of their war coverage, rather than an error.”

Like much of the AI-generated garbage about the war that has flooded social media, it's unclear who created it or where it came from. However, since the war began, the BBC has seen other examples of AI-generated imagery shared by government media to promote their narrative. Many of these images are extremely unrealistic and intended to glorify, not deceive.

The White House and US President Donald Trump also routinely share AI-generated images or videos for glorifying purposes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently shared an AI-generated image on Instagram depicting himself, Trump, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a triumphant pose. The post was added by a news outlet through Instagram's collaboration feature.

Fragments of Truth

Iran's history of mixing truths with false information has sown doubt among many critics of the regime, both inside and outside the country

When Iranian state media reported on March 3 that more than 160 children and teachers were killed in an attack on a school—in what independent experts believe was likely a US operation targeting a nearby military base—they also shared an aerial photograph of a large funeral. Government opponents claimed it was generated by artificial intelligence.

But the image was real. We geolocated it to a cemetery about 3.7 km from the school, confirming that the trees, the road layout, and a nearby building matched those seen in the satellite images.

Newly dug graves were also visible in satellite images taken the day after the funeral. The day before, the site was empty.

“We have to accept two truths at once,” says Mahsa Alimardani of Witness.

The Iranian regime usually hides evidence when it is the perpetrator of abuses, but during war it also invests heavily in documenting civilian casualties.

While such documentation may serve the propaganda and the war narrative of the State, he explains, it does not automatically make it false.

Regarding reports from Iranian state media, Alimardani points out that it is advisable to maintain a "healthy skepticism."