2020 feud with state TV chief: payment claim, IRIB complaint and an insult conviction upheld in 2022
Etemad, Ensaf News and Bartarinha coverage of how former state TV host Vahid Yaminpour accused the IRIB public relations office of paying pages to attack critics, called then-chief Abdolali Ali-Asgari the most incompetent head in TV history, and faced an IRIB complaint. Ensaf News reported in July 2022 that an appeals court upheld his conviction for insulting Ali-Asgari.
Editorial timeline of public reporting, not a legal finding.
- Public claim that IRIB PR paid pages to attack critics - Etemad newspaper, as republished by Ensaf News, reported that on August 15, 2020 Yaminpour wrote on Twitter that the IRIB public relations office had paid several Instagram pages and channels to attack critics, and that one channel had admitted being paid to publish false news about the programs Jahan Ara and Soraya. شکایت صداوسیما از یامین پور
- IRIB complaint, Jahan Ara halted, and Yaminpour's attack on Ali-Asgari - Etemad reported on September 16, 2020 that IRIB had filed a complaint against Yaminpour and that his political show Jahan Ara had been taken off air. In a Twitter thread he called IRIB head Ali-Asgari the most incompetent head in the history of television and said the complaint was meant to silence his criticism. Bartarinha also reported the complaint. صداوسیما از مجری اش شکایت کرد؛ او هم به صداوسیما حمله کرد
- Appeals court upholds insult conviction - Ensaf News reported on July 24, 2022 that an appeals court rejected Yaminpour's appeal and upheld a lower-court ruling that had convicted him of insulting former IRIB head Abdolali Ali-Asgari, with a fine whose enforcement was suspended for two years. Sarpoosh republished the report. حاشیههای یامینپور تمامی ندارد: محکومیت قطعی به اتهام توهین