“Whether we like it or not, the media and the information war is part of this conflict.”
— Reza Sayah
There’s no shortage of headlines about the United States’ war with Iran today. Too often missing are the voices from Iranians—and the historical and regional context that might help us make sense of it all.
The Pulitzer Center has been committed to elevating the voices of communities in war zones since our earliest days, and to providing a lens on the underlying factors that lead to conflict, including in Iran. To bring a unique perspective to audiences here in the U.S. and beyond, we invited our former grantee Reza Sayah, a correspondent based in Tehran, to share his views from the ground in Iran.
Sayah joined us at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., for a conversation with Pulitzer Center CEO Lisa Gibbs and former grantee Scott Anderson, author of King of Kings, which offers a critical lens into the history of the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution.
During the conversation, Sayah shared: “There's a lot of uncertainty of where this will lead to. What comes next? Will this war ever end? How will it end? Will things get better? Will peace and stability and calm ever return? Or is this turmoil something that's going to go on like many American wars have for a very long time? ... There's just a lot of different emotions, from despair to worry, all the way to the other end of the spectrum, to pride and exhilaration and confidence and nationalism.”
Sayah was also interviewed on PBS NewsHour and PBS News' Compass Points during his visit to the U.S., supported by the Pulitzer Center.
As the Pulitzer Center marks our 20-year anniversary, we’ve been revisiting the long arc of the journalism we support. Anderson is a former grantee on the project Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart, published 10 years ago by The New York Times Magazine as a feature story, with photography by Paolo Pellegrin. PBS NewsHour also interviewed Anderson about King of Kings and Fractured Lands 10 years on.
At the event in Washington, Anderson and Sayah also reflected on the role of journalism in conflict.
“It used to be that journalists were seen as … eyewitnesses to what's going on and reporting back. Increasingly [now], combatants on both sides don't want witnesses, and they try to kill you,” Anderson shared.
Nathalie Applewhite
Director of Strategic Partnerships
This message appeared in the September 25, 2026, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter.
