Pouranvari, Yousef
"Yousef Pouranvari (Pouranvari) is the Director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the [IRIB's English and French] flagship channel... Pouranvari... is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13846 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, IRIB, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13628, which was revoked and superseded by E.O. 13846."1
"Youssef Pouranvari is the director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) foreign-language flagship channel. As the Government of Iran’s state-run media conglomerate, IRIB has a monopoly on television and radio services in Iran and plays a central role in restricting the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and impeding the free flow of information in Iran through censorship activities. IRIB produces, sponsors, and spreads government propaganda both in Iran and internationally. Furthermore, IRIB regularly broadcasts false and baseless accusations against Iranian citizens, dual nationals, and foreigners, and uses falsified news to misinform and falsely incriminate perceived enemies of the regime. IRIB also cooperates extensively with security and intelligence agencies, including Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to obtain and publicly disseminate forced confessions from Iranians, dual-nationals and foreign detainees. Testimonies and other evidence point to the use of torture, both physical and psychological; threats against family members; and degrading treatment to extract forced confessions. Since 2009, IRIB programmes have broadcast hundreds of forced confessions as well as defamatory content against hundreds more. IRIB uses forced confessions in particular to frame dual nationals and foreigners as spies, demonise human rights activists, and legitimise repression against religious minority groups such as the Baha’i community. In his capacity as director of the Programs and Scheduling Department at the IRIB foreign-language flagship channel, Youssef Pouranvari contributes to the repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, students or other persons who speak up in defence of their legitimate rights. He is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran."2
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