Name: What Iranians are being told about the war | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-17T16:28:33.000Z
Duration: 5 min 23 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

State media in Iran announcing the beginning of the war.

When U.S. and Israeli airstrikes hit Tehran, It was quick and decisive, typical of news outlets.

Basic passive voice

But it wasn't long before facts were muddled with falsehoods and half truths.

Later that day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested their joint forces had killed Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei at his home.

Iran's silence was loud until a regime spokesperson called the reports of Khamenei's death enemy psychological warfare, and

Then the following morning, hours after US President Trump publicly confirmed the Supreme Leader's death, state media ran the news that Khamenei had been killed by Israel and the US.

Reporters Without Borders say Iran is one of the most repressive countries when it comes to press freedom now in its attempt to control what people hear, see and watch.

All broadcasting on tv, radio, social media and news websites is controlled by the state.

And Western media outlets, including BBC Persian are banned from reporting in the country.

The Internet has been cut off and people can't have access to the Internet to get the news from there.

It has been like this for decades, since the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

And I think in Iran, censorship is the lock and disinformation is the key.

And it doesn't let the people see exactly what's going on inside the country.

Iranian media has also routinely published bogus claims inflating the number of casualties behind enemy lines.

One such report claimed that Iranian forces had killed or injured 650American personnel in the first two days phase of the war.

At the time, the Pentagon had confirmed only six soldiers had died.

New technology is also helping state media.

This video showing the aftermath of a strike in Bahrain was posted online by the Iranian state owned English language news outlet Press tv.

A closer look and these two cars are dissolving into one another.

A reverse image search brings no credible reports of the hit.

Instead, it brought up another version of the AI video.

Like much of the AI generated content about the war that's flooded social media.

It's unclear who made it and where it came from.

They have a narrative, they're pushing witches that they are quite victorious.

And so we've been seeing various different examples of AI generated content coming out of state media.

State media, you know, X accounts, Telegram channels that kind of show either fake or exaggerated examples of their attacks against, you know, US air bases.

But the information space is distorted even by the regime's critics.

When Iranian state media reported the funerals of 160 children and staff killed in what experts say was likely a US operation targeting a military base close to a school in southern Iran, opposers of the government claimed that this view from the mass funeral was AI manipulated.

The government's track record of feeding kernels of truth alongside lies has sown doubt amongst many, except this time their reporting was factually correct.

This wider shot shows the area surrounding the graves.

Within the image's metadata are the coordinates for where it was captured.

We geolocated it to a cemetery roughly 3.7 km away from the school.

Satellite imagery shows that these trees, the road layout and this nearby building match those visible in the footage.

Other satellite imagery from the day after the funeral provides a clear image of the graves.

AI manipulation, the denial and inflation of deaths.

in the state's attempt to display its might internationally, half truths and lies have spilt over.

Iran may see this as a battle it can win.