By Staff, Agencies

In yet another brazen attack on the freedom of press, the US government on Wednesday imposed sanctions on top officials of Iran’s state broadcaster, including the organization chief and head of the World Service.

In a statement, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC] said it was designating six senior employees of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting [IRIB], which was designated by Washington in 2013.

It alleged that IRIB had broadcast "hundreds of forced confessions of Iranian, dual national, and international detainees in Iran."

The sanctions target IRIB chief Peyman Jebeli, head of IRIB World Service and the CEO of English-language Press TV television news network Ahmad Norouzi, IRIB Vice Director General Mohsen Barmahani, Director of Press TV’s Programs Department Yousef Pour-Anvari, as well as IRIB senior correspondents Ali Rezvani and Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour.

Media analysts believe that the latest US sanctions on Iranian media outlets and senior IRIB officials come as the White House has miserably failed in its project to topple Iran’s Islamic establishment, and install a vassal state in its place.

On Saturday, the European Union imposed sanctions on a number of Iranian institutions and individuals, including Press TV, over alleged “rights violations” following the recent foreign-backed riots in the country.

The European Union announced new sanctions on a further 29 Iranian officials and three organizations for alleged crackdown on protests, which began following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman, who collapsed in police custody and was pronounced dead a few days later at hospital.

The 29-member bloc imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, four members of the police squad that arrested Amini, high-ranking members of the Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG], including its provincial commanders, the commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces, and Press TV, which it accused of airing "forced confessions of detainees," an EU statement said.