A Message From FRONTLINE’s Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer

I’m writing today about two major, unfolding stories, one abroad and one at home.

First: Earlier today, in a decision that’s expected to have wide ramifications for universities and students across the country, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that found the affirmative action programs at Harvard and UNC to be unconstitutional.

Joining the majority was Justice Clarence Thomas, whose battle against affirmative action has been long and personal — and is something we traced in our recent two-hour special, Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court. In light of today’s decision, I encourage you to revisit the documentary and our related reporting, as well as our in-depth coverage over the years of the Supreme Court’s rightward shift.

Also today, we are premiering an extraordinary new documentary, Inside the Iranian Uprising, that examines the women’s rights protest movement that has rocked Iran over the past several months. The film, from Iranian director Majed Neisi and Emmy Award-winning producer Sasha Joelle Achilli, will air on PBS stations Aug. 8, but we are making it available to stream now as the Iranian regime continues to prosecute and in some cases execute protesters — and as the calls for change continue to resonate.

Watch Inside the Iranian Uprising on our site, in the PBS App and on YouTube now.

 

As you may recall, last fall, anti-government protests swept across Iran after the death in police custody of a young woman, Mahsa Zhina Amini, who was accused of not adhering to the Islamic regime’s strict dress code. In the crackdown on protests that followed, human rights groups estimate that more than 500 Iranians have been killed, including 72 children.

In a country where journalists are tightly controlled, young Iranians have been filming the uprising themselves and posting the videos online. For more than six months, our team has been gathering and reviewing over 100 hours of this footage, cross-checking it with testimony from eyewitnesses and protesters, and following activists and exiles who have been gathering evidence of human rights violations.

Inside the Iranian Uprising features the gripping footage and eyewitness accounts of protesters, some of whom are still in the country and are speaking out despite the risks, and it sheds new light on the lengths to which the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has gone to put down the uprising.

I hope you will find time to watch this unflinching documentary out of Iran, as well as our deep archive of work surrounding the Supreme Court decision today.

Thank you.