Iran’s intelligence ministry has formally branded several Persian-language Christian satellite television channels as “hostile” media, warning that anyone who even watches or contacts these ministries can be prosecuted under national security and espionage laws, according to Christian advocates and legal analysts.
An opinion piece in The Christian Post reports that on July 14 Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) published an online list of foreign “hostile” media organizations that now includes multiple evangelical Christian broadcasters based outside the country. The article notes that the ministry has stated that “cooperation” with such outlets—including tuning in to their broadcasts or engaging with them online—can be treated as a crime carrying years in prison or worse. A separate news report in The Christian Post’s news section, citing a joint appeal to United Nations officials, likewise warns that “any form of ‘cooperation’ with Christian television networks” may now be prosecuted as an espionage offense.
The new designation comes amid an escalating campaign against visible expressions of Protestant Christianity in Iran. In early July, Iranian authorities moved to confiscate Tehran’s historic St. Peter Evangelical Church, widely described as the country’s oldest Protestant congregation, and ordered Christians living on the church compound to leave their homes. International Christian Concern reports that the property is being transferred to a state-linked foundation, while a coalition of advocacy groups told U.N. officials that “St. Peter Evangelical Church’s confiscation is not an isolated incident,” linking the seizure with the new classification of Christian satellite broadcasters as hostile organizations.
These developments are part of a broader pattern of tightening control over the country’s Christian minority, particularly converts from Islam. In its 2026 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom notes that Iranian authorities systematically targeted Christians throughout 2025, with at least 143 arrests and some 162 active court cases tied to ordinary Christian activities such as praying, celebrating Christmas, and administering baptisms, activities that prosecutors have treated as crimes of “collusion” and “propaganda against the state.” The same report observes that one indictment even described the Bible as a “prohibited book,” underscoring how deeply the regime fears Christian teaching. A detailed study by advocacy organization Middle East Concern and its partners documents 254 Christian arrests in 2025—nearly double the previous year—and highlights the regime’s frequent use of Article 500 bis of the Iranian penal code, which criminalizes “propaganda contrary to the holy religion of Islam” and now functions as a primary tool to punish Christian converts.
Foreign ministries and human-rights bodies have reached similar conclusions. The United Kingdom’s June 2026 country policy note on Iranian Christians states that converts and those who share their faith are often charged with vaguely defined offenses such as “propaganda against the state” and “promotion of evangelical Zionist Christianity,” with penalties that increasingly include long prison sentences, heavy fines, and restrictions on employment and movement. The 2026 World Watch List dossier on Iran from Open Doors likewise describes converts from Islam as facing the harshest pressure, noting that they are frequently arrested in coordinated raids on house churches and interrogated over contacts with Christian media. The U.S. State Department has for years designated Iran a “Country of Particular Concern” for “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom, a status highlighted again in recent coverage by International Christian Concern.
Christian satellite broadcasters and digital ministries sit at the center of the new clash. For decades, Persian-language Christian programs carried by satellites and online have been a primary way Iranians encountered the gospel, especially converts who cannot safely attend recognized churches. A 2026 feature in Christianity Today notes that diaspora ministries like Iran Alive Ministries and others have relied on satellite television to disciple believers inside the country. In a recent interview on the “Inside Iran” program, available on YouTube, a leader with the Heart4Iran media coalition explained that the satellite provider carrying their Farsi-language Christian content abruptly cut their signal after Iranian pressure, forcing the ministry to scramble for a new provider within days in order to keep preaching and offering prayer to Iranian viewers. The MOIS “hostile media” list, combined with past disruptions of satellite and internet access, aims to sever that lifeline by making even private viewing of Christian channels legally dangerous.
Iranian officials often describe Christian broadcasters and converts as tools of foreign enemies, especially in the wake of recent conflict with the United States and Israel. Middle East Concern’s 2026 report notes that the Ministry of Intelligence publicly claimed to have “neutralised” 53 “trained elements” after last year’s 12-day war with Israel—language that advocacy groups say refers to evangelical Christians and house-church leaders. The report, together with analysis published by Iran International, shows that nearly 90 percent of charges against Christians in 2025 were brought under the amended Article 500, a law broad enough to treat Christian evangelism or even contact with foreign ministries as a national security threat. At the same time, legal submissions to U.N. bodies from organizations such as the American Center for Law and Justice describe house churches being raided, Bibles confiscated, and pastors sent to prisons notorious for psychological pressure and abuse.
For Christians outside Iran, these moves raise sober questions about how to support a church that is both hidden and remarkably resilient. Scripture speaks directly to this kind of situation: when the apostles were ordered to stop teaching in Jesus’ name, they answered, “We must obey God rather than human beings” (Acts 5:29). The early church’s experience, including the imprisonment of Peter and Paul, reminds believers that civil authorities sometimes misuse their God-given power by trying to silence the gospel, even though “the word of God is not chained” (2 Timothy 2:9). Iranian authorities may label Christian broadcasters as hostile, but the spiritual reality, from a Christian perspective, is that the gospel remains a message of reconciliation and peace, not espionage or subversion.
Christian leaders and advocates are urging the global church to respond first with prayer and then with careful, informed solidarity. Hebrews 13:3 calls believers to “remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison,” a verse frequently cited in appeals from ministries working with Iranian converts. Organizations such as Open Doors and Middle East Concern encourage Christians to pray for wisdom and courage for Iranian pastors, for protection for families now afraid that a late-night TV program could bring a knock on the door, and for government officials to have their hearts softened toward genuine freedom of conscience. At the same time, advocacy groups continue to press governments and international bodies to keep Iran’s treatment of Christians on the agenda, arguing that broadcasting hope into Iran and defending basic religious freedom are inseparable from a Christian vision of justice.