Protestors on Saturday broke into Iran’s state-run television during a live broadcast, disrupting the programme to show an anti-government message amid continuous turmoil around the nation.
According to media reports, anti-revolutionary elements briefly hacked the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network’s (IRINN) 9 p.m. programme, which is produced by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. The event reportedly occurred when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was present at a meeting in the southern city of Bushehr, according to the pro-reform IranWire publication, which published a footage of the incident.
The now-viral video of the event depicts how IRIB/IRINN services were cut off by a black-and-white cartoon mask with a beard and thick brows.
After the film of the mask, there was a screen with images of four young ladies who had just passed away in Iran: Nika Shahkarami, Hadis Najafi, Mahsa Amini, and Sarina Esmailzadeh, coupled with a picture of Khamenei with a target overlaid on his face.
After being imprisoned by the morality police, Amini, 22, passed away. The protest movement that has emerged since Amini’s death claimed the lives of the other three, two of whom were only teens.
The words “Join us and rise up” and “The blood of our young is gushing from your grip” appeared next to the images on the screen, along with the social media handles for the hacking organisation Edaalat-e Ali, which is short for Ali’s Justice.
The picture stayed on the screen for a while.
According to media reports, Edaalat-e Ali seemed to claim responsibility for the hacking when they posted the video footage to their social media account along with the statement, “On the people’s request, we fulfilled our pledge and accomplished the unimaginable to free Iran.”
Iran has been engulfed in nationwide protests for weeks following the killing of Amini, who was detained by the government’s morality police for ostensibly not donning her hijab correctly before being killed. Authorities and protesters have engaged in violent battles since her death, which have reportedly resulted in hundreds of fatalities.
The number of fatalities since the demonstrations began has been reported by the government, opposition organisations, international human rights organisations, and local media. The number of fatalities since the protests began in Iran have reached 154, according to IranHR, a human rights organisation with a focus on Iran and located in Norway. According to Human Rights Watch, the official Iranian media reported 60 fatalities as of September 31.
