{ "title": "Incidents: licensing and closure of outlets in Asia", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?continent=asia&tactic=outlet_licensing", "filters": { "continent": "asia", "tactic": "outlet_licensing" }, "sort": "date", "count": 7, "page": 1, "pages": 1, "per_page": 50, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "facets": { "country": [ { "value": "KH", "label": "Cambodia", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 151, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } }, { "value": "HK", "label": "Hong Kong", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 140, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } }, { "value": "IN", "label": "India", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 157, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } }, { "value": "MM", "label": "Myanmar", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 166, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } }, { "value": "PK", "label": "Pakistan", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 153, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 153rd of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } }, { "value": "KR", "label": "South Korea", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 47, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 47th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } }, { "value": "TR", "label": "Türkiye", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 163, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" } } ], "continent": [ { "value": "asia", "label": "Asia" } ], "tactic": [ { "value": "outlet_licensing", "label": "Licensing and closure of outlets", "count": 7 }, { "value": "detention_and_violence", "label": "Detention and violence", "count": 3 }, { "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "label": "Secrets and espionage laws", "count": 1 }, { "value": "disinformation_labeling", "label": "Official labels", "count": 1 }, { "value": "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "label": "Funding and ownership pressure", "count": 1 }, { "value": "prior_restraint", "label": "Prior restraint", "count": 1 } ], "stage": [ { "value": "punish", "label": "Punish", "count": 1 }, { "value": "silence", "label": "Silence", "count": 5 }, { "value": "eliminate", "label": "Eliminate", "count": 1 } ], "level": [ { "value": "national", "label": "National", "count": 6 }, { "value": "state_or_province", "label": "State or province", "count": 1 } ], "outcome": [ { "value": "sustained", "label": "Sustained", "count": 5 }, { "value": "reversed", "label": "Reversed", "count": 2 } ], "leader": [ { "value": "chun-doo-hwan", "label": "Chun Doo-hwan" }, { "value": "hun-sen", "label": "Hun Sen" }, { "value": "indira-gandhi", "label": "Indira Gandhi" }, { "value": "john-lee", "label": "John Lee" }, { "value": "min-aung-hlaing", "label": "Min Aung Hlaing" }, { "value": "recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdoğan" }, { "value": "shehbaz-sharif", "label": "Shehbaz Sharif" } ], "era": [ { "value": "2020s", "label": "2020s", "count": 3 }, { "value": "2010s", "label": "2010s", "count": 2 }, { "value": "1980s", "label": "1980s", "count": 1 }, { "value": "1970s", "label": "1970s", "count": 1 } ], "year": [ { "value": "1975", "label": "1975", "count": 1 }, { "value": "1980", "label": "1980", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2016", "label": "2016", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2017", "label": "2017", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2021", "label": "2021", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2025", "label": "2025", "count": 2 } ], "has_case": [ { "value": "0", "label": "without a court case", "count": 7 } ] }, "results": [ { "slug": "2025-hong-kong-convicts-jimmy-lai-under-national-security-law", "title": "China (Hong Kong): conviction and 20-year sentence of the media owner Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law, 2025 to 2026", "occurred_on": "2025-12-15", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "HK", "country_name": "Hong Kong", "continent": "asia", "jurisdiction": "HK", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "outlet_licensing", "secrets_and_espionage_laws" ], "leader_slug": "john-lee", "leader_name": "John Lee", "issue_of_the_day": null, "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2026-02-08", "outcome_note": "Sentenced to 20 years in prison on 2026-02-08; no appeal is recorded in the sources cited.", "stage": "eliminate", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 140, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "in_effect", "case_count": 0, "summary": "On December 15, 2025, the High Court of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China with its own courts, convicted Jimmy Lai, founder of the newspaper Apple Daily, on two counts of \"conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces\" under the National Security Law, which China's central government imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, and one count of \"conspiracy to publish seditious publications.\" On February 8, 2026, the court sentenced Lai to 20 years in prison. Apple Daily shut down in June 2021 after its accounts were frozen and much of its top leadership was arrested. Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization, called the charges \"bogus.\"", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-hong-kong-convicts-jimmy-lai-under-national-security-law" }, { "slug": "2025-pakistan-amends-peca-cybercrime-law", "title": "Pakistan amends cybercrime law to create new agency policing 'fake' online content", "occurred_on": "2025-01-29", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "PK", "country_name": "Pakistan", "continent": "asia", "jurisdiction": "PK", "level": "national", "tactic_primary": "disinformation_labeling", "tactics": [ "disinformation_labeling", "outlet_licensing" ], "leader_slug": "shehbaz-sharif", "leader_name": "Shehbaz Sharif", "issue_of_the_day": "The government said the amendment was needed to curb online disinformation, but journalists said the new offense's vague wording, covering content merely believed likely to cause \"fear, panic, disorder or unrest,\" gave authorities broad discretion over ordinary reporting.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "The amendment remained law despite nationwide journalist protests and a Human Rights Watch call for its repeal.", "stage": "punish", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 153, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 153rd of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "in_effect", "case_count": 0, "summary": "Pakistan's parliament amended the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act to create a new Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority with power to block online content and a Social Media Protection Tribunal, and made spreading information deemed 'fake or false' punishable by up to three years in prison, prompting nationwide journalist protests.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-pakistan-amends-peca-cybercrime-law" }, { "slug": "2021-myanmar-junta-revokes-media-licenses", "title": "Myanmar junta revokes five outlets' licenses and raids newsrooms after coup", "occurred_on": "2021-03-08", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "MM", "country_name": "Myanmar", "continent": "asia", "jurisdiction": "MM", "level": "national", "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "outlet_licensing" ], "leader_slug": "min-aung-hlaing", "leader_name": "Min Aung Hlaing", "issue_of_the_day": "The outlets had been covering nationwide protests against the military's February 1, 2021 seizure of power from Myanmar's elected government, coverage the junta sought to stop by removing the outlets' legal authorization to operate.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "The five outlets' licenses were not restored; CPJ counted at least 32 journalists still imprisoned as of July 2021.", "stage": "silence", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 166, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "in_effect", "case_count": 0, "summary": "Weeks after seizing power, Myanmar's military junta revoked the operating licenses of five independent media outlets covering protests against the coup and raided two of their newsrooms, seizing computers and files; journalists from the outlets were later arrested and charged under a broadened penal-code provision on spreading 'false news.'", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-myanmar-junta-revokes-media-licenses" }, { "slug": "2017-cambodia-daily-closed-tax-bill", "title": "Cambodia's government forces the closure of The Cambodia Daily with a disputed multimillion-dollar tax bill", "occurred_on": "2017-09-04", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "KH", "country_name": "Cambodia", "continent": "asia", "jurisdiction": "KH", "level": "national", "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "outlet_licensing" ], "leader_slug": "hun-sen", "leader_name": "Hun Sen", "issue_of_the_day": "Preparations for Cambodia's 2018 general election and a wider government campaign against independent media and civil-society groups seen as sympathetic to the opposition.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2017-09-04", "outcome_note": "The Cambodia Daily did not reopen; its closure coincided with a wider campaign against independent outlets and civil-society groups ahead of Cambodia's 2018 election.", "stage": "silence", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 151, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "2010s", "granularity": "anchor", "status": "historical", "case_count": 0, "summary": "Cambodia's tax authority presented the independent, English-language Cambodia Daily with a $6.3 million bill the paper called arbitrary and undocumented, forcing the 24-year-old newspaper to close rather than pay, amid a wider campaign against independent media before 2018 elections.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2017-cambodia-daily-closed-tax-bill" }, { "slug": "2016-turkey-post-coup-media-closures", "title": "Turkey closes more than 100 media outlets by decree after a failed coup attempt", "occurred_on": "2016-07-27", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "TR", "country_name": "Türkiye", "continent": "asia", "jurisdiction": "TR", "level": "national", "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing", "tactics": [ "outlet_licensing" ], "leader_slug": "recep-tayyip-erdogan", "leader_name": "Recep Tayyip Erdoğan", "issue_of_the_day": "The failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt against President Erdogan's government and the mass arrests and dismissals that followed against alleged participants and sympathizers.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2016-12-31", "outcome_note": "Most closures were not reversed by the decrees themselves; Human Rights Watch documented that the closures reached opposition and Kurdish-audience outlets beyond any shown Gulen movement link.", "stage": "silence", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 163, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "2010s", "granularity": "anchor", "status": "historical", "case_count": 0, "summary": "After a failed July 2016 coup attempt, Turkey's government closed more than 100 newspapers, television and radio stations, news agencies and publishing houses by state-of-emergency decree, citing alleged links to the movement it blamed for the coup.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2016-turkey-post-coup-media-closures" }, { "slug": "1980-south-korea-chun-doo-hwan-press-purge", "title": "South Korea's martial-law government purges journalists who resisted press controls", "occurred_on": "1980-07-31", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "KR", "country_name": "South Korea", "continent": "asia", "jurisdiction": "KR", "level": "national", "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "outlet_licensing" ], "leader_slug": "chun-doo-hwan", "leader_name": "Chun Doo-hwan", "issue_of_the_day": "Chun Doo-hwan's military government had just suppressed a pro-democracy uprising centered in the city of Kwangju in May 1980, and used the purge to remove journalists it associated with resistance to press press controls during that period.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1987-06-01", "outcome_note": "South Korea's June 1987 democracy movement led to direct presidential elections and an easing of press controls; a 1986 leak of secret press guidelines had already embarrassed the government.", "stage": "silence", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 47, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 47th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "1980s", "granularity": "anchor", "status": "historical", "case_count": 0, "summary": "Under General Chun Doo-hwan's martial-law government, South Korean authorities ordered newsrooms in 1980 to purge journalists who had resisted press controls or joined a May sit-in strike for press freedom, and closed 172 periodicals, dismissing roughly 2,000 journalists in total.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1980-south-korea-chun-doo-hwan-press-purge" }, { "slug": "1975-india-emergency-press-censorship", "title": "India imposes pre-press controls on every newspaper during the 1975 Emergency", "occurred_on": "1975-06-26", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "IN", "country_name": "India", "continent": "asia", "jurisdiction": "IN", "level": "national", "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint", "tactics": [ "outlet_licensing", "prior_restraint" ], "leader_slug": "indira-gandhi", "leader_name": "Indira Gandhi", "issue_of_the_day": "A court had found Prime Minister Gandhi guilty of election malpractice shortly before the Emergency began, and her government cited threats to internal stability in declaring the state of emergency and imposing press press controls the next day.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1977-03-21", "outcome_note": "Gandhi ended the Emergency and lifted press press controls on March 21, 1977, shortly before her party lost the general election that followed.", "stage": "silence", "ladder_note": null, "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 157, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "era": "1970s", "granularity": "anchor", "status": "historical", "case_count": 0, "summary": "Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency on June 25, 1975, and the next day her government imposed pre-press controls on every Indian newspaper, requiring official clearance before publication and later forcibly merging the country's news agencies into one.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1975-india-emergency-press-censorship" } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?continent=asia&tactic=outlet_licensing&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents.json?continent=asia&tactic=outlet_licensing", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents.md?continent=asia&tactic=outlet_licensing" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }