“More partners, more options,” the Associated Press boasts about its content-sharing arrangements with more than 100 photo and video partners offering “[u]nrivaled partner collections covering hard news, UGC [user-generated content], sports and entertainment.”
Presumably, the myriad desirable “options” weren’t intended to extend to content issued by designated terror organizations and propaganda platforms run by the repressive regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. But, in fact, AP’s offerings have included just that. Thus, in December 2024, AP initially shared without clarification a Houthi propaganda video claiming that the Islamic Republic of Iran-backed terror group had targeted a military facility. Only following CAMERA’s intervention did the leading news agency clarify that in fact the partially intercepted ballistic missile slammed into a school in central Israel.
More recently, following a strike on another school — the deadly Feb. 28, 2026 strike on a girls’ school in Minab, Iran — AP tapped another questionable partner for unchallenged content: Mehr News Agency, which is controlled by the mullah-ruled Iranian regime and is owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization.
Not only did the AP deem Mehr News Agency an acceptable source. It also concealed from readers that the Mehr News Agency is not a news agency in any Western understanding of the term. Rather it is a propaganda arm of a tyrannical oppressive regime. Moreover, the AP, which prides itself on its purported commitment to “[a]dvancing the power of facts,” parroted the disputed Iranian propaganda claim without challenge, despite evidence to the contrary.
Thus, on March 9, even as AP itself published an article, “New footage raises likelihood struck an Iranian school where a blast killed at least 165,” which makes abundantly clear that all evidence concerning the devastating school strike points to a U.S. attack targeting a nearby IRGC naval facility, the news agency opted to illustrate the story with two Mehr News Agency photos carrying captions citing “what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-U.S. strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.” [Emphasis added.] The photo at left, along with its false caption, was also featured in AP’s Feb. 27-March 5 “Week in Pictures.”
Demonstrating the widespread harm of the AP’s reckless parroting of Iranian regime claims, secondary media outlets picking up the image didn’t even bother with the news agency’s minimal qualification that “Iranian officials said.” Thus, Le Monde‘s caption cites as fact an “Israeli-American bombing”: “Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble after the Israeli-American bombing of a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, February 28, 2026. ABBAS ZAKERI/MEHR NEWS AGENCY VIA AP.”
Similarly, the caption at Australia’s ABC News is: “Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble in the aftermath of an Israeli-US strike on a girls’ elementary school in Iran. (AP Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency)”
And, in particularly damning instance, The Seattle Times perfectly illustrates how secondary media outlets blindly rely on AP which in turn mindlessly parrots a terror regime’s propaganda. On March 9, the news site illustrated AP’s article about the evidence pointing to U.S. responsibility for the strike with one of the Mehr images captioned: “Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble in the aftermath of an Israeli-U.S. strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP).”
When partnering with a “news agency” run by the Islamic Republic and owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization, at the very minimum doesn’t AP have an obligation to provide full disclosure about the fact that the agency is a propaganda arm of the Ayatollah-run government? And shouldn’t AP provide explicit information in the captions making absolutely clear that the regime’s claim is disputed and not supported by the evidence?
In response to communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, AP amended the captions in its photo archive to remove reference to an “Israeli-U.S. strike.” (See screenshot at left.) The updated captions now refer only to an unattributed “strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.” As of this writing, the false captions citing an “Israeli-U.S. strike” remain untouched alongside the AP story pointing to overwhelming evidence of a U.S. (but not Israeli) strike and in the “Week in Pictures” feature.