LONDON, United Kingdom – Iran's state broadcaster, IRIB, said on Thursday it had fired two senior staff members, while eight others are set to face legal action, a day after airing a controversial segment that insulted Sunni Muslims.

The program dubbed “Family View” on the IRIB's Channel One featured a guest reciting a poem explicitly offending Abu Bakr, the first caliph and revered figure in Sunni Islam. The broadcast sparked immediate anger, particularly among Iran's minority Sunni community.

In response, IRIB's Public Relations department came out with a statement, calling the move an “unforgivable error,” emphasizing the broadcaster's commitment to unity among Islamic denominations. It announced that the production group manager and the channel's broadcast affairs chief were sacked.

Separately, legal action has been launched against eight other members of the production team involved.

Additionally, the program's host issued an on-air apology, stressing that the segment went against the national broadcaster's values.

The IRIB's decision to remove the clip from its official platforms failed to soothe the already growing outrage on social media, where many condemned the state-funded corporation for airing divisive content, as they reviewed its history of similar controversial output.

A disappointing 'non-apology'

Some pro-government accounts framed the issue as the work of “saboteurs” attempting to sow discord between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. They demanded an investigation and swift action against those responsible. Critics of Iran's hardline factions, however, blamed the IRIB leadership itself for fostering sectarianism under the influence of such ultraconservative figures as Saeed Jalili, a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

One notable reaction came from the governor of the Sunni-populated Sistan-Baluchistan province, who denounced the clip as an insult to Sunni sacred beliefs and stressed the need for robust safeguards to prevent a repetition of such incidents.

For his part, the IRIB chief Peyman Jebelli, who has been appointed by the supreme leader, blamed “seditious elements” for the incident, describing it as an attack on Islam.

His remarks were widely criticized as a “non-apology,” further triggering calls for his own resignation. Jebelli's refusal to issue a formal apology was seen by many as an ominous indication that policies of the sort will still continue to define the overall direction of the hardline-controlled organization.