How Journalists Are Reporting From Iran With No Internet

After strikes killed senior Iranian officials, Iran cut off internet access. Journalists are relying on satellite links, encrypted apps, and smuggled footage to report from inside the country.

On Saturday, coordinated Israeli and American attacks hit a military compound in Tehran, killing dozens of senior regime officials, including Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Within hours, the government imposed a near-total internet blackout, isolating the country from the outside world. Mostafa Zadeh, an international journalist based in Tehran, explains to WIRED Middle East that he was not surprised when “the United States attacked, nor when his telephone network died and his landlines followed”: “It is very similar to the State’s response to the security measures of January, and even to the outbreaks of previous agitation”. The government has internet access usually cut off during crises, usually citing security problems as the cause.