Major Western media publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC and The Guardian, among others, have maintained a sharp focus on the Iranian government’s violent crackdown on protestors.

The Western media have portrayed the protests as uprisings against the regime with a focus on human rights violations, state repression and calls for wholesale reform. Despite the internet shutdown that has been in force for the past five days, videos of Iranians grieving as they gathered beside bodies shrouded in black bags in a makeshift morgue at the Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in the south of Tehran have made their way to the Western media.

Initial protests on December 28 staged by shopkeepers and traders in Tehran in late December, angered by rising inflation, skyrocketing prices and the tanking economy, have snowballed into widespread demonstrations against Iran’s clerical establishment, ruling the country since 1979. 

As per figures sourced from activist groups inside and outside the country, the death toll of 646 protestors has been listed, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, besides the arrest of over 10,000 people in the past two weeks of the unrest. Given the information blackout since January 8, however, it has been tough to ascertain the real figures. 

Iranian state media has sought to counter these narratives, highlighting that dozens of security personnel have been killed by certain demonstrators allegedly engaged in violent rioting, while broadcasting pro-government demonstrations. One official even accused some demonstrators of “killing people or burning some people, which is very similar to what ISIS does”.

There have been differing narratives about Western media coverage of the protests in Iran. On the one hand, pro-Israeli media watchdog Honest Reporting claims that coverage by Western outlets ranging from the New York Times to the BBC had “reframed” demonstrations “as vague cost-of-living protests, despite protesters chanting openly for the end of clerical rule”. 

The WSJ on December 29, 2025, reported, “On Qeshm Island, on the country’s Persian Gulf coast, protesters were chanting ‘death to the dictator’ at night as motorists honked in support, other verified footage shows. In Hamedan, western Iran, protesters chanted slogans calling for the return of the Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled Iran before it was toppled by the Islamic revolution in 1979.” Meanwhile, the NYT, on December 30 reported, on student demonstrators chanting, “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom” and “Don’t be afraid! We are all together.” 

Meanwhile, The Guardian published a story headlined, ‘We want the mullahs gone’: economic crisis sparks biggest protests in Iran since 2022, on December 31. There is a broad consensus that worsening economic conditions in the country sparked the protests.  

There was outrage in some quarters when BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson claimed that social media footage from Iran required careful verification. Critics, particularly in the pro-Israel camp, believed that “same outlets readily published unverified material from Gaza” – contrary to the claim made by many BBC employees who accused it of pro-Israel coverage.

What remains uncontested is that the Western media coverage on the protests in Iran, especially the government’s crackdown on protestors, has been uniform in highlighting human rights violations and violent state repression. Even Iran’s own state media has acknowledged that the majority of those killed in the protests “were ordinary people with ordinary families”. 

The other narrative emerging comes from The Grayzone, a far-left outlet, which claims that the Western media has looked to “US government-funded NGOs” for data on the death toll. At the same time, they’ve ignored the “wave of violence” allegedly unleashed by rioters. It alleges that the Western media “have primarily relied on death counts compiled by Iranian diaspora groups funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the regime change arm of the US government, and whose boards of directors are filled with committed neoconservatives”. 

However, a journalist with the Iran Wire has told Time that one hospital told her that they are “too overwhelmed by gunshot patients”, and reported the overall death toll at 1,000. 

On the issue of foreign intervention in Iran to propel regime change, particularly US President Donald Trump’s threats to do so, segments of the Western media have asserted that his rhetoric is genuine but counterproductive. Many Iran observers have remarked that the protests are neither organised nor have a central figure(s) to rally around, while the military hasn’t broken ranks with the clerics. However, publications such as the WSJ have encouraged US intervention.

In its recent editorial, the outlet noted, “Mr Trump’s instinct is better: If Iran were to slaughter protesters, he warned on Friday, ‘We will be hitting them very hard where it hurts’. The question is how to hit them in a way that helps protesters while damaging the regime.”

The editorial added: “An effective US policy would support Iran’s people for as long as it takes them to overwhelm their regime until it becomes paralysed, shows cracks in its leadership, and can no longer hold back the crowds... The people of Iran will have to win their own freedom, but this is a historic moment when America can help them topple a dangerous tyranny.”

Finally, many users on the internet cast doubt on the size of the protests or pro-government demonstrations, claiming AI manipulation or misleading camera angles. France 24 devoted an entire bulletin to decoding these viral videos. 

However, ultimately, it has been difficult to obtain information about what is going on in Iran due to the communications blackout imposed by the Iranian government.

According to Reporters Without Borders, “Internet access and telephone lines were cut overnight on 8 January by the Iranian regime following nationwide protests. Plunged into a blackout, journalists inside the country are now unable to communicate with the outside world.” 

“RSF is deeply concerned about the fate of media professionals on the ground, including Narges Mohammadi and the 23 other journalists currently detained in the country. The NGO is calling on the international community to pressure the Iranian regime to restore access to information in the country,” it added.

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