Fearless Reporting from the Glass Building

On Israel's endless war on journalism. This time, in Iran.

On Monday approaching 8 pm local time, Israeli missiles targeted the Islamic State of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) headquarters in northern Tehran, setting the building on fire for hours, killing news editor Nima Rajabpour and administrator Masoumeh Azimi and inflicting multiple injuries on media workers.

This terrorist attack on the five-storey structure — known as “The Glass Building” due to its part-glass facade serving as a metaphor for transparency — took place during a live report on the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) channel by news anchor Sahar Emami, who was reporting on a government communiqué.

Explosions nearby were heard for almost a minute before the building was hit with at least four bombs, causing it to shake and covering the studio in dust, with Emami reappearing seconds later and defiantly stating, “The voice of reality will not be shut down.”

“A clear and obvious example of opposition to free speech”

Emami returned to air shortly after from another studio in the building, unscathed and telling viewers, “What you saw and what you heard was the echo of the voice of the invader…the enemy of justice and truth.” She declared she would continue to report and “defend the cries of mothers whose children are gone.”

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) confirmed that its air force targeted the building, claiming it is “used by Iran’s armed forces for military activity,” to “promote military operations under civilian cover.”

Before the attack took place, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened the “Iranian regime’s propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority,” adding, “We will defeat the Iranian dictator everywhere.”

Despite the fact that attacks on journalists and media buildings are war crimes, the Israeli state has never shied away from attacking and killing journalists and media workers throughout its genocide in Gaza, and beyond.

Since October 7, 2023, the IOF has killed 269 Palestinian journalists. A study by Brown University in Rhode Island, published in April 2025, reported that Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed more journalists than World War One and World War Two combined.

News Editor Younes Shadlou, reporting from outside the media headquarters immediately after the airstrikes said he was working on the first floor at the time the building was struck. With his hands covered in blood from the bombings, he condemned the “the child-killing Zionist regime.”

Shadlou said he and his colleagues were warned of threats to attack and instructed to evacuate but all decided they would stay “to show the world Iran’s strength.”

IRIB’s Director General Peyman Jebelli in a report following the attack held up a news script with blood on it from an injured worker. He said, “When you look at the history of the wicked Zionist regime and the history of the wars it has imposed on the people, be it in Lebanon, Palestine, and now Iran…journalists and reporters are a main target.”

He continued:

What weapons do we have at our disposal? Apart from newspapers? How are they threatening to anybody? They’re just revealing lies, they’re just telling the truth of what is happening. We just tell our audience that…we show them how savage an enemy we’re facing. There’s no justification for this attack apart from the fact that the Zionist regime wants to stifle the voice of truth…they want to avoid revelation of the crimes they’re committing. They will not succeed…The whole world is condemning these crimes.”

IRIB’s Channel 3 also continued its broadcast, denouncing the attack while referring to it as an “uncommon” act for Israel, after which all journalists and the film crew chanted “Death to Israel” on air.

Israel’s attacks comes days after Israel’s June 13, 2025 assassination campaign in Iran, which killed an estimated 20 senior military commanders, nuclear scientists and hundreds of civilians, instigating a hot war between the two states.

Israel claimed its attacks targeted nuclear and missile sites, allegedly to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, despite there being no evidence whatsoever that Iran has a nuclear weapons programme — a fact U.S. intelligence has confirmed — and despite Israel’s abject hypocrisy considering it has an unknown amount of illegal nuclear weapons, does not allow weapons inspectors to inspect them and despite Israel’s sordid and illegal history of acquiring them.

Israel also has a military doctrine and global blackmail operation known as The Samson Option which claims to be a “deterrent strategy” or “last resort” in which Israel will use its nuclear weapons against its allies, as well as its enemies, if it is in danger of falling. While this might sound like hyperbole, it is a real.

Monday’s attack against journalists at their place of work are not the only war crime Israel committed that day (outside of Gaza). It also conducted airstrikes on the Al-Farabi Hospital in the Western city of Kermanshah which killed 45 women and children, as well as a separate attack in Tehran which killed three paramedics who Israel targeted inside their Red Crescent ambulance.

Since these terrorist attacks took place, few media outlets and journalists have offered solidarity against this egregious assault on their colleagues.

The few who did include British broadcast journalist and Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi, who called the attacks “NATO playbook stuff,” harking back to when the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation “illegally bombed Belgrade television [studios] in Yugoslavia as part of their wars of freedom and liberation.”

Rattansi added:

They always want to stop a free media. That’s why there’s so much censorship, not just in Israel…It’s what NATO does. They need a totalitarian system to prevent their populations from understanding the world.

Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen said it “regards the Israeli aggression against a civilian media institution not only as a war crime against journalism and journalists but a full-fledged and flagrant war crime against humanity,” and called for “Arab and international media outlets and international organizations, to take a clear unwavering stance of solidarity with IRIB.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “appalled” by the attacks, while the Iraqi Journalist Syndicate demanded intervention from the international community.

Axis of Resistance organisations issued statements on the Resistance News Network channel on Telegram. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said Israel’s attack “reflects the nature of the occupation as a terrorist state that does not hesitate to bombard free speech,” and commended “the courage of the IRIB’s correspondents and media personnel.”

Hezbollah condemned the crime against “innocent civilians,” while Ansarallah called the attack a “cowardly and treacherous crime.”

“Lioness of Iranian Media”

Clips of the news studio when struck by bombs went viral on social media where supporters celebrated the resilience and heroism of anchor Emami, posting pictures of her with her finger raised in the religious gesture which demonstrates the oneness of god, just as she did on air following the attack, elevating her to an icon of resistance against Israeli terrorism.

Others posted images of Emami alongside former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the same pose and showing defiance against the Zionist entity.

As a result of Israel’s attack in Tehran, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it would respond with retaliatory strikes on the base from which Israel used to launched its attack against journalists and the media HQ.