Video claimed to show Iran coverage of Paris Olympics is satirical clip from 2013

A video is being shared widely on social media with a false claim it shows genuine coverage of Paris Olympic events being censored on Iranian broadcasts.

In the footage being shared, women are shown competing in events, including high jump, hurdles, and diving, with parts of their body obscured by superimposed black rectangles and stars.

But the clip, which has been circulating on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), with the caption: “this is how Iran broadcasts the Olympics”, is not a genuine Iranian broadcast of the Olympics.

It comes from a 2013 satirical video, which can be seen on the YouTube channel of a Farsi-language satire show OnTen. 

In the full video, the comedians in the skit discuss how to censor sports that do not meet Iran’s dress codes for women. The same section of footage being shared can be seen with English subtitles giving details about the athlete’s performance.

In 2019, the show’s producer, Iranian-American journalist Saman Arbabi, told AFP that the segment was created “as a joke” which satirised the Iranian government for not broadcasting women’s sports.

Does Iran broadcast the Olympics?

Reportedly Iran’s TV channels do not broadcast many women’s sports, and the government had for decades implemented a de facto ban on women watching live sporting events, such as football, in stadiums. 

A report about how Iran covered the Beijing 2008 Olympics by Slate magazine said that state-controlled TV networks featured only events where female athletes were predominantly covered or where Iranian female athletes were competing. While all broadcast media created in Iran is controlled by the state, some residents have satellites that allow them to watch channels broadcast from abroad, which is how OnTen was relayed, via the Voice of America network.

Although some claims seem really obviously false, we still fact check them because it may not be clear to everyone that it is untrue, particularly more casual internet users. You can read our blog about this here. 

We’ve previously checked a number of false and misleading claims about the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, including of miscaptioned videos of Christians allegedly protesting following the opening ceremony, and a claim that Israeli artistic swimmers spelled out ‘bring them home’ in an Olympic swimming practice.