Iran's New Bill Could Jail Citizens for an Instagram Post or a Foreign Interview, Critics Warn It's a Path to 'North Korea'

Iranian lawmakers have approved a bill criminalising unauthorised contact with foreign media, threatening ordinary citizens, researchers and journalists with prison for speaking to international outlets. Sharing a photograph or Instagram post with an international audience could carry a jail sentence.

The bill was approved by Iran's parliament on 16 August, with offenders facing up to two years in prison. It comes weeks after a veteran Iranian photojournalist was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Tehran for documenting the US-Israeli war, a case rights groups say shows exactly what the new law would formalise nationwide.

Instagram, X and Academic Exchanges All Face Restrictions

Even platforms such as Instagram and X could fall under the bill if the regime considers them 'financed' by another country, according to Moein Khazaeli, an Iranian human rights lawyer at Dadban, a legal counselling centre for Iranian activists, speaking to the Guardian.

'It means any kind of interview, contact, or sending photographs to them [foreign media or organisations] could lead to six months to two years' imprisonment,' Khazaeli said.

'Not just the US and Israel, but any contact with foreign media in any country could be considered a crime if one doesn't inform the intelligence ministry beforehand.' That would apply to interviews, photographs and academic or professional exchanges alike, not just formal journalism.

A Sentence That Shows What's at Stake

Yalda Moaiery, 44, was sentenced in absentia this month to 15 years in prison after being accused of media activity deemed to aid Israel and the US, over her coverage of the war.

She has spent two decades documenting Iran, including the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests and the anti-regime protests in January that, according to rights groups, led to thousands of deaths.

'Of course, I am scared,' Moaiery told the Guardian. 'The only thing that I'm worried about is wasting my life if I have to be there for 15 years. 'When I get out, I'll be 60 years old.' She rejected the accusation that her reporting served Israeli or American interests.

'I have been a critic of Israel and its policies all my life,' she said. 'And I have always been a critic of American politics. 'It was like something that you are against, and they want to stick it to you. So it's hard. It's super hard.'

'A North Korea Kind of Situation'

Khazaeli said the wider bill signals an effort to regulate and punish any contact between Iranians and foreign media or institutions, not just journalists. 'It could move [Iran] to a North Korea kind of situation,' he said.

Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at the Center for Human Rights in Iran, said the law risked turning the country into an 'isolated black hole'. 'It is not simply an attack on journalists and citizen journalists,' she said. 'It is an attempt to sever the entire Iranian society from the rest of the world by criminalising the free flow of information itself.'

'It sends a chilling message and threatens to turn ordinary academic, professional and civic engagement into a potential national security crime,' Ghandehari added.

Iran ranks 177th out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders' 2026 Press Freedom Index, which cites the regime's crackdown and the war with Israel among the reasons for its near-bottom position.

If passed into law, the new bill would not simply add to that record. It would also formalise informal repression into statute, making it a defined criminal offence for any citizen, not only reporters, to speak to a foreign outlet, give an interview or post to a platform deemed foreign-financed without first informing the intelligence ministry.

For Iranians abroad and at home who rely on international media to share information about protests, arrests or daily life, that would remove one of the last remaining channels connecting the country to outside scrutiny.