Tasnim News Agency () is a semi-official news agency in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

associated with the

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service primary branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, Iranian Armed Forces. It was officially established by Ruhollah Khom ...

(IRGC). Launched in 2012, its purpose is to cover a variety of political, social, economic and international subjects along with many other fields.

Background

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, Tasnim (تسنیم) is the name of a spring in

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

from which those nearest to

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

are said to be able to drink. Tasnim's stated goal is to " efendthe

Islamic Republic The term Islamic republic has been used in different ways. Some Muslim religious leaders have used it as the name for a form of Islamic theocratic government enforcing sharia, or laws compatible with sharia. The term has also been used for a s ...

against negative media propaganda campaigns and provide our readers with realities on the ground about Iran and

." Tasnim is headquartered in Iran's capital

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, with reporters across the country and the Middle East.

Affiliation

The IRGC controls Tasnim, which often magnifies the IRGC's ideology. Tasnim is the IRGC's largest owned media outlet. During a visit to Tasnim's offices in 2023, then-IRGC commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari stated, ''"The faithful and revolutionary media have today a very heavy duty in confronting anti-Islamic and anti-human plots of the oppressors"''. According to Tehran Bureau, Tasnim plays an active role in the Iranian government's state-led disinformation campaigns against protestors.

History

Tasnim was founded on 30 June 2012 by

(IRGC) commander Hamidreza Moghaddamfar, board chairman Jafar Darouneh, and CEO Majid Qolizadeh Zahmatkesh. Darouneh was head of

's Department of Education during the presidency of

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...

. In August 2023, the Afghan Taliban detained a photographer for Tasnim.

COVID-19 pandemic

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Tasnim has alleged in a series of

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

articles that

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

was part of "an American and Jewish plot at world domination through population control" hatched by

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

, who is described as "the unique Jewish scholar and American strategist" and "a master controller of government and international finance."

International sanctions

On September 15, 2023, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

sanctioned Tasnim News Agency for "serious human rights violations in Iran," stating that the "news outlet is responsible for publishing false confessions by protesters on its website and social media accounts as well as for posting pictures of protestors on social media and asking readers to help identify them." The same day, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

added Tasnim News Agency to the

Office of Foreign Assets Control The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, United States Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade economic sanctions, ...

(OFAC)'s

Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, also known as the SDN List, is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists, officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, a ...

Non-Persian versions

Tasnim staff includes English speakers, who translate some of the agency's articles into English. In 2022, Tasnim launched a Hebrew-language website. In 2023,

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...

signed a deal with Tasnim to launch a Russian website.

References

External links

* * {{Iranian news agencies and websites 2012 establishments in Iran Government agencies established in 2012 News agencies based in Iran Multilingual news services Mass media in Tehran Creative Commons-licensed websites Politics of Iran Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Iranian propaganda organisations Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List Iranian entities subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions