Ladder: surveillance and subpoenas
A government collects journalists' communications or records, often to learn who their sources are. Methods include subpoenas (court orders to hand over records or to testify), search warrants, seizure of phones and notes, demands to telephone and internet companies, and spyware placed on reporters' devices.
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
Pressure
Using state power short of prosecution to change coverage: regulatory threats, licence reviews, funding cuts, lawsuits by officials, official "fake news" or "foreign agent" labels, advertising pressure, tax audits.
| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 16, 1971 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Richard Nixon | White House Counsel John Dean wrote a memo on how to use federal agencies against President Nixon's political opponents, and the resulting list of more than 200 names included journalists such as CBS News correspondent Daniel Schorr. Full entry | Reversed (June 27, 1973) | 2 |
| September 9, 1971 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Richard Nixon | On September 9, 1971, the office of Charles Colson, special counsel to the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, sent White House Counsel John Dean, the president's lawyer on official matters, a memorandum naming 20 people as an initial "enemies list." Full entry | Unknown | 2 |
| April 25, 2025 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Donald Trump | On April 25, 2025, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, head of the Department of Justice, the federal department that prosecutes federal crimes, rescinded rules adopted in 2021 and 2022 under her predecessor, Merrick Garland, that barred prosecutors from seeking reporters' records… Full entry | Sustained (April 25, 2025) | 1 |
| September 20, 1998 | Malaysia (RSF 2026 rank: 95th of 180) | Mahathir Mohamad | After Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government arrested former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998, party-linked newspapers pressured staff to follow the official line, police visited journalists who interviewed his wife, and authorities said they would monitor internet traffi… Full entry | Unknown | 2 |
| February 14, 2023 | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Narendra Modi | India's Income Tax Department searched BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai for alleged tax evasion, three weeks after the government used emergency powers to block a BBC documentary examining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's response to 2002 communal violence. Full entry | Unknown | 1 |
Punish
Legal or physical action against individual journalists or sources: subpoenas and record seizures, prosecutions, arrests, detention, expulsions, visa denials, assault where a government actor is involved.
| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 1955 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Dwight D. Eisenhower | The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator James Eastland, issued 35 subpoenas over past or present Communist Party ties in the press, and 26 of them went to New York Times staff. Full entry | Sustained (December 1, 1956) | 1 |
| 1969 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Richard Nixon | Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Paul Branzburg was subpoenaed by a Kentucky grand jury, a body that investigates possible crimes, after he wrote about drug users he had observed. Full entry | Upheld by a court (June 29, 1972) | 1 |
| July 6, 2005 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | George W. Bush | A federal judge jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller for contempt after she refused to tell a grand jury who told her the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, part of a special counsel's investigation into the leak. Full entry | Upheld by a court (September 29, 2005) | 2 |
| May 13, 2013 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Barack Obama | The U.S. Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records from more than 20 Associated Press phone lines during a leak investigation, notifying the news agency only after the fact; AP called the scope of the seizure unjustified. Full entry | Sustained (July 12, 2013) | 2 |
| May 20, 2013 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Barack Obama | A 2010 FBI search-warrant affidavit, unsealed in 2013, described Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible co-conspirator in violating the Espionage Act because he sought classified information from a State Department analyst, and used that theory to obtain his private emails. Full entry | Sustained (July 12, 2013) | 2 |
| October 10, 2013 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Barack Obama | A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organization in New York that documents cases of journalists imprisoned or killed worldwide, published on October 10, 2013, found that since 2009 the United States Department of Justice had brought felony charges against six gover… Full entry | Unknown | 4 |
| October 17, 2014 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Barack Obama | For years, federal prosecutors sought New York Times reporter James Risen's testimony identifying a confidential source in a CIA leak case; the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, but Attorney General Eric Holder ultimately chose not to force him to testify or name the source. Full entry | Reversed (October 17, 2014) | 2 |
| July 19, 2021 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Joe Biden | After it came to light that the Trump-era Justice Department had secretly obtained the phone and email records of reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a policy barring prosecutors from using subpoenas or other compulsory process again… Full entry | Reversed (April 25, 2025) | 2 |
| November 6, 2021 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Joe Biden | FBI agents raided Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe's New York home and seized his phones as part of an investigation into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Biden's daughter, which the group had reported on; O'Keefe was never charged. Full entry | Unknown | 1 |
| August 11, 2023 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Laura Kelly | Police in Marion, Kansas, led by Chief Gideon Cody, raided the Marion County Record's newsroom and publisher Eric Meyer's home, seizing computers, phones and files, on a warrant tied to an identity-theft investigation. Full entry | Reversed (August 5, 2024) | 3 |
| July 10, 2026 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Donald Trump | U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal at Washington Dulles Airport, questioned him about his reporting trips to Iran, and seized both of his phones without his consent; the phones were returned a week later after he sued. Full entry | Reversed (July 17, 2026) | 1 |
| August 18, 2013 | United Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180) | David Cameron | British authorities detained David Miranda, partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, for nine hours at Heathrow Airport under anti-terrorism powers, and separately had Guardian staff destroy hard drives holding files leaked by Edward Snowden rather than hand them to a court. Full entry | Upheld by a court (January 19, 2016) | 3 |
| June 5, 2019 | Australia (RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180) | Scott Morrison | Australian Federal Police spent hours searching the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) over its 2017 "Afghan Files" reports on alleged killings by Australian special forces that breached the laws of armed conflict, seizing files under a warrant citing the Crimes Act's ban… Full entry | Reversed (October 15, 2020) | 2 |
| April 15, 2020 | Australia (RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180) | Scott Morrison | Australia's High Court ruled that the warrant the Australian Federal Police used to raid News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst's home over a national-security leak was invalid, and weeks later the AFP said it would not lay charges against her, citing insufficient evidence. Full entry | Reversed (May 27, 2020) | 2 |
| February 3, 2025 | Bangladesh (RSF 2026 rank: 152nd of 180) | Muhammad Yunus | On a single day in February 2025, groups of men beat at least eight journalists in two separate incidents in rural Bangladesh while they investigated a medical-negligence tip and a land dispute; the incidents came as the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus drafted new cyber ordinances rights g… Full entry | Ongoing | 1 |
All ladders · Surveillance and subpoenas: by country and year · The United States chapter