Press TV said on its website that "contrary to a vast publicity campaign by Western media that confessed murderer Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been released,” she was still in custody.
The Iranian English language news channel confirmed that an interview it did with Ashtiani — the apparent source of the rumor — was filmed at her home.
But instead of showing her freedom, the documentary shows Ashtiani at home describing the murder of her husband, a crime for which she could be hanged. The program will be aired at midnight (2030 GMT) on Friday.
"Press TV ... arranged with Iran's judicial authorities to follow Ashtiani to her house to produce a visual recount of the crime at the murder scene," the television channel said.
Ashtiani's sentence to be stoned for adultery — the only crime which carries that penalty under Iran's Islamic Shariah law — was suspended after an international outcry by both Western countries and some others that have warm relations with Iran.
The European Union called it "barbaric,” the Vatican pleaded for clemency and Brazil, which has tried to intervene in Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear program, offered Ashtiani asylum.
In October, two German reporters were arrested as they tried to interview Ashtiani's adult son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh.
Berlin has appealed for the release of the Bild am Sonntag reporters, who government officials said entered on tourist visas and so had no right to work as journalists under Iran's strict media controls.
Germany, along with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, resumed talks with Tehran this week, seeking reassurances its nuclear activities will not lead it to acquire atomic weapons.
While a resolution to the nuclear standoff appears remote, the Ashtiani case has further strained relations with the West, with Tehran saying international media have manipulated the story to demonize the Islamic Republic.
In an interview with US television in September Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied Ashtiani was ever sentenced to stoning, contradicting other Iranian officials.
Iranian media do not refer to her stoning sentence for adultery, focusing instead on the murder charge.
Talk of Ashtiani's release appears to have been sparked by photographs Press TV released to the international media on Thursday, one of which shows her in her garden with her son.
Rumors spread quickly on the Internet, with thousands of joyful messages appearing on the Twitter website after the International Committee Against Stoning, based in Germany, said "sources in Iran" had word of her freedom.
Press TV said Ashtiani had confessed and been found guilty of murdering her husband in collusion with her lover.
While Iranian officials say Ashtiani's case is purely a matter for the judiciary, it has become an international political cause and the head of Iran's Council of Human Rights said last month there was "a good chance that her life could be saved.”
The fate of the German reporters may also prove a political-diplomatic matter. A spokesman said the government was considering a request to release them over Christmas, something that would send a goodwill message to Berlin.
