{ "title": "Incidents, state or province level", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?level=state_or_province", "filters": { "level": "state_or_province" }, "sort": "date", "count": 8, "page": 1, "pages": 1, "per_page": 50, "facets": { "country": [ { "value": "US", "label": "United States", "count": 6 }, { "value": "HK", "label": "Hong Kong", "count": 1 }, { "value": "CA", "label": "Canada", "count": 1 } ], "continent": [ { "value": "north-america", "label": "North America", "count": 7 }, { "value": "asia", "label": "Asia", "count": 1 } ], "tactic": [ { "value": "access_ban", "label": "Access bans", "count": 6 }, { "value": "detention_and_violence", "label": "Detention and violence", "count": 3 }, { "value": "outlet_licensing", "label": "Licensing and closure of outlets", "count": 1 }, { "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "label": "Secrets and espionage laws", "count": 1 }, { "value": "prior_restraint", "label": "Prior restraint", "count": 1 } ], "level": [ { "value": "state_or_province", "label": "State or province", "count": 8 } ], "outcome": [ { "value": "reversed", "label": "Reversed", "count": 4 }, { "value": "sustained", "label": "Sustained", "count": 2 }, { "value": "ongoing", "label": "Ongoing", "count": 2 } ], "leader": [ { "value": "jeff-landry", "label": "Jeff Landry", "count": 2 }, { "value": "john-lee", "label": "John Lee", "count": 1 }, { "value": "ron-desantis", "label": "Ron DeSantis", "count": 1 }, { "value": "doug-ducey", "label": "Doug Ducey", "count": 1 }, { "value": "john-horgan", "label": "John Horgan", "count": 1 }, { "value": "tim-walz", "label": "Tim Walz", "count": 1 }, { "value": "theodore-christianson", "label": "Theodore Christianson", "count": 1 } ], "era": [ { "value": "2020s", "label": "2020s", "count": 7 }, { "value": "1920s", "label": "1920s", "count": 1 } ], "year": [ { "value": "1927", "label": "1927", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2020", "label": "2020", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2021", "label": "2021", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2023", "label": "2023", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2024", "label": "2024", "count": 1 }, { "value": "2025", "label": "2025", "count": 3 } ], "has_case": [ { "value": "0", "label": "without a court case", "count": 8 } ] }, "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.", "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-federal-judge-blocks-louisiana-buffer-law", "title": "United States (Louisiana): Federal court order blocking enforcement of the police buffer zone law, January 2025", "occurred_on": "2025-01-31", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-LA", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "access_ban", "tactics": [ "access_ban" ], "leader_slug": "jeff-landry", "leader_name": "Jeff Landry", "issue_of_the_day": null, "outcome": "ongoing", "outcome_on": "2025-01-31", "outcome_note": "Preliminary injunction granted 2025-01-31; Louisiana's appeal was reported pending as of mid-2026.", "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "in_effect", "case_count": 0, "summary": "On January 31, 2025, Judge John W. deGravelles of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, a federal trial court, blocked enforcement of the state's 25-foot (7.6-metre) police buffer zone law with a preliminary injunction, an order that keeps the situation as it is while a case is decided. He wrote that \"the distance required is likely to impede Plaintiffs' non-obstructive newsgathering\" and that \"the Act has a chilling effect on Plaintiffs' First Amendment rights.\" The plaintiffs included journalists and civil rights observers. Louisiana was reported to be appealing the order.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-federal-judge-blocks-louisiana-buffer-law" }, { "slug": "2025-florida-halo-law-takes-effect", "title": "United States (Florida): Halo Law buffer zone around first responders, January 2025", "occurred_on": "2025-01-01", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-FL", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "access_ban", "tactics": [ "access_ban" ], "leader_slug": "ron-desantis", "leader_name": "Ron DeSantis", "issue_of_the_day": null, "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2025-01-01", "outcome_note": "In effect from 2025-01-01; the sources cited report no court order blocking it (as of 2026-09-22).", "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "in_effect", "case_count": 0, "summary": "On January 1, 2025, the \"Halo Law\" took effect in Florida, a state in the south-eastern United States. It creates a 25-foot (7.6-metre) buffer zone around first responders, such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics, while they are performing their duties, and anyone who enters the zone \"to 'harass, impede or threaten' first responders after receiving a warning\" faces up to 60 days in prison and a fine of US$500. The law applies to journalists as well as the public. The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed it in 2024.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-florida-halo-law-takes-effect" }, { "slug": "2024-louisiana-enacts-police-buffer-zone-law", "title": "United States (Louisiana): 25-foot buffer zone law around police officers, May 2024", "occurred_on": "2024-05-24", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-LA", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "access_ban", "tactics": [ "access_ban" ], "leader_slug": "jeff-landry", "leader_name": "Jeff Landry", "issue_of_the_day": null, "outcome": "ongoing", "outcome_on": "2025-01-31", "outcome_note": "Enforcement blocked by a preliminary injunction on 2025-01-31 while the case is pending; Louisiana's appeal was reported pending as of mid-2026.", "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "in_effect", "case_count": 0, "summary": "On May 28, 2024, the governor of Louisiana, a state in the southern United States, Jeff Landry, signed a law that makes it a crime to stay within 25 feet (about 7.6 metres) of a working law enforcement officer after the officer has told a person to step back. The law applies to everyone, including journalists. Supporters described it as protecting officers' safety while they work. On January 31, 2025, a federal judge blocked its enforcement while a challenge to it is decided.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-louisiana-enacts-police-buffer-zone-law" }, { "slug": "2023-arizona-police-recording-law-struck-down", "title": "Federal court strikes down Arizona's law banning recording police within 8 feet", "occurred_on": "2023-07-21", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-AZ", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "access_ban", "tactics": [ "access_ban" ], "leader_slug": "doug-ducey", "leader_name": "Doug Ducey", "issue_of_the_day": "The bill's sponsor said it responded to concerns that groups he described as antagonistic toward police followed officers around filming encounters and came dangerously close during potentially violent incidents.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2023-07-21", "outcome_note": "A federal judge permanently enjoined enforcement of the law, and Arizona's attorney general did not appeal.", "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "reversed", "case_count": 0, "summary": "Arizona's 2022 law making it a crime to record police within eight feet after a warning was struck down by a federal judge in July 2023, who found it chilled a substantial amount of activity protected by the First Amendment and was not necessary given other laws already protecting officers.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-arizona-police-recording-law-struck-down" }, { "slug": "2021-rcmp-restricts-press-fairy-creek-court-order", "title": "Court orders RCMP to stop restricting press access at Fairy Creek logging blockades", "occurred_on": "2021-07-20", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "CA", "country_name": "Canada", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "CA-BC", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "access_ban", "tactics": [ "access_ban", "detention_and_violence" ], "leader_slug": "john-horgan", "leader_name": "John Horgan", "issue_of_the_day": "The RCMP was enforcing a court injunction won by logging company Teal-Jones against protesters blocking old-growth logging roads near Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, and had required journalists to check in and stay escorted rather than observe enforcement directly.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2021-07-20", "outcome_note": "The court granted the media coalition's request, requiring the RCMP to account for press access in future enforcement decisions.", "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "reversed", "case_count": 0, "summary": "A British Columbia court found the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had failed to justify wide exclusion zones that kept journalists away from its enforcement of a logging injunction at the Fairy Creek old-growth blockades, and ordered police to keep the media's role in a free society in mind when deciding whether to remove or arrest reporters.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-rcmp-restricts-press-fairy-creek-court-order" }, { "slug": "2020-minnesota-state-patrol-arrests-cnn-crew-minneapolis", "title": "Minnesota State Patrol arrests CNN crew live on air in Minneapolis", "occurred_on": "2020-05-29", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-MN", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence", "tactics": [ "access_ban", "detention_and_violence" ], "leader_slug": "tim-walz", "leader_name": "Tim Walz", "issue_of_the_day": "Protests in Minneapolis followed the police killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Jimenez's crew was reporting live on the unrest and the state's response near the site of the killing when troopers moved to clear the area at dawn on May 29.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2020-05-29", "outcome_note": "The crew was released within about ninety minutes and Governor Walz apologized the same day, calling the arrest his own failure.", "era": "2020s", "granularity": "granular", "status": "reversed", "case_count": 0, "summary": "Minnesota State Patrol troopers arrested CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew on live television while they covered protests after the police killing of George Floyd. Officers gave no reason before handcuffing the three men; Governor Tim Walz apologized hours later and called the arrest a failure of the state's own procedures.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-minnesota-state-patrol-arrests-cnn-crew-minneapolis" }, { "slug": "1931-us-near-v-minnesota-gag-law", "title": "United States Supreme Court strikes down a Minnesota law used to shut a newspaper", "occurred_on": "1927-01-01", "occurred_on_precision": "year", "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "jurisdiction": "US-MN", "level": "state_or_province", "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint", "tactics": [ "prior_restraint" ], "leader_slug": "theodore-christianson", "leader_name": "Theodore Christianson", "issue_of_the_day": "The Saturday Press had run articles accusing Minneapolis officials, police and a local gangster of corruption and racketeering, allegations the county attorney treated as scandalous and defamatory under the state's 1925 nuisance law.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1931-06-01", "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court of the United States struck down the Minnesota law 5 to 4 as a restraint on publication in advance that the Constitution did not allow.", "era": "1920s", "granularity": "anchor", "status": "historical", "case_count": 0, "summary": "A Hennepin County attorney used Minnesota's 1925 Public Nuisance Law to shut down The Saturday Press, a Minneapolis paper accusing officials of corruption. In 1931 the Supreme Court of the United States struck the law down, ruling that stopping a paper before publication was itself a form of press controls.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1931-us-near-v-minnesota-gag-law" } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?level=state_or_province&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents.json?level=state_or_province", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents.md?level=state_or_province" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }