{
  "title": "Incidents: prior restraint, stage: pressure",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?tactic=prior_restraint&stage=pressure",
  "filters": {
    "tactic": "prior_restraint",
    "stage": "pressure"
  },
  "sort": "date",
  "count": 5,
  "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": "EG",
        "label": "Egypt",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 169,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 169th 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": "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"
        }
      },
      {
        "value": "US",
        "label": "United States",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 64,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
          "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
        }
      }
    ],
    "continent": [
      {
        "value": "africa",
        "label": "Africa"
      },
      {
        "value": "asia",
        "label": "Asia"
      },
      {
        "value": "north-america",
        "label": "North America"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "prior_restraint",
        "label": "Prior restraint",
        "count": 5
      },
      {
        "value": "disinformation_labeling",
        "label": "Official labels",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
        "label": "Surveillance and subpoenas",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "label": "Secrets and espionage laws",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "pressure",
        "label": "Pressure",
        "count": 5
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 5
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "sustained",
        "label": "Sustained",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "reversed",
        "label": "Reversed",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "unknown",
        "label": "Unknown",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "ongoing",
        "label": "Ongoing",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "abdel-fattah-el-sisi",
        "label": "Abdel Fattah el-Sisi"
      },
      {
        "value": "franklin-d-roosevelt",
        "label": "Franklin D. Roosevelt"
      },
      {
        "value": "narendra-modi",
        "label": "Narendra Modi"
      },
      {
        "value": "recep-tayyip-erdogan",
        "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdoğan"
      }
    ],
    "era": [
      {
        "value": "2020s",
        "label": "2020s",
        "count": 3
      },
      {
        "value": "2010s",
        "label": "2010s",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "1940s",
        "label": "1940s",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "year": [
      {
        "value": "1941",
        "label": "1941",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "2018",
        "label": "2018",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "2023",
        "label": "2023",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "2024",
        "label": "2024",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 5
      }
    ]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "2024-india-court-strikes-down-fact-check-unit",
      "title": "Bombay High Court strikes down India's government 'fact check unit' rule",
      "occurred_on": "2024-03-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "month",
      "country": "IN",
      "country_name": "India",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "IN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "disinformation_labeling",
      "tactics": [
        "disinformation_labeling",
        "prior_restraint"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "narendra-modi",
      "leader_name": "Narendra Modi",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The government said the Fact Check Unit was needed to combat misinformation about its own policies and announcements online, at a time when it separately faced criticism over content restrictions ahead of India's 2024 general election.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "2024-09-20",
      "outcome_note": "The Bombay High Court struck down the rule, finding its key terms 'vague and overbroad,' after the Supreme Court had already stayed its operation.",
      "stage": "pressure",
      "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": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "reversed",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "India's 2023 amendment to its Information Technology Rules empowered a government-run Fact Check Unit to label online content about the central government 'fake' or 'false' and require its removal; comedian Kunal Kamra and media groups challenged it, and the Bombay High Court struck the rule down as unconstitutionally vague.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-india-court-strikes-down-fact-check-unit"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2023-turkiye-rtuk-fines-earthquake-coverage",
      "title": "Turkiye: the broadcast regulator fines and suspends channels for earthquake coverage",
      "occurred_on": "2023-02-22",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "TR",
      "country_name": "Türkiye",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "TR",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "recep-tayyip-erdogan",
      "leader_name": "Recep Tayyip Erdoğan",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Earthquakes in southern Turkiye in early February 2023 killed more than 50,000 people and drew widespread criticism of the government's building codes and disaster response.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2023-02-22",
      "outcome_note": "CPJ called for the penalties to be revoked; the source reviewed does not report that RTUK did so.",
      "stage": "pressure",
      "ladder_note": "A national regulator barred two programs from airing at all for five future episodes over their earthquake coverage, a forward restriction rather than a single broadcast ban.",
      "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": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Turkiye's broadcast regulator, RTUK, fined three television channels and suspended the next five episodes of two of their programs after they aired criticism of the government's response to the February 2023 earthquakes.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-turkiye-rtuk-fines-earthquake-coverage"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2023-india-tax-authorities-raid-bbc-offices",
      "title": "Indian tax authorities search BBC offices weeks after Modi documentary ban",
      "occurred_on": "2023-02-14",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "IN",
      "country_name": "India",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "IN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint",
        "surveillance_and_subpoenas"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "narendra-modi",
      "leader_name": "Narendra Modi",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The searches followed the government's ban, weeks earlier, of the BBC documentary 'India: The Modi Question,' which examined Modi's record as Gujarat's chief minister during 2002 riots that killed mostly Muslims.",
      "outcome": "unknown",
      "outcome_on": null,
      "outcome_note": "No penalty or further tax action against the BBC was reported; the broadcaster's India operations continued.",
      "stage": "pressure",
      "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": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "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.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-india-tax-authorities-raid-bbc-offices"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2018-egypt-scmr-license-requirement-al-manassa",
      "title": "Egypt: a license requirement leaves an independent news site unable to operate legally for years",
      "occurred_on": "2018-10-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "month",
      "country": "EG",
      "country_name": "Egypt",
      "continent": "africa",
      "jurisdiction": "EG",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "abdel-fattah-el-sisi",
      "leader_name": "Abdel Fattah el-Sisi",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The licensing requirement operated alongside a 2018 cybercrime law that made it a crime to use certain software tools without the council's permission, according to Al-Manassa's editor.",
      "outcome": "ongoing",
      "outcome_on": "2020-10-26",
      "outcome_note": "Al-Manassa's editor said the outlet's 2018 license application had received no response as of the October 2020 interview.",
      "stage": "pressure",
      "ladder_note": "A national council required a license before a news site could operate at all and left the application unanswered for years rather than approving, denying or fining it.",
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 169,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Regulation required news websites to obtain a government license to operate, and independent outlet Al-Manassa's application, filed in 2018, went unanswered for more than two years.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-egypt-scmr-license-requirement-al-manassa"
    },
    {
      "slug": "1941-us-office-of-censorship-wartime-press-code",
      "title": "United States creates an Office of Censorship and a wartime code for the press",
      "occurred_on": "1941-12-19",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint",
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "franklin-d-roosevelt",
      "leader_name": "Franklin D. Roosevelt",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The United States had just entered the Second World War after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the government wanted to prevent newspapers and broadcasters from unintentionally publishing information useful to enemy forces.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "1945-09-28",
      "outcome_note": "The Office of Censorship operated on the press's voluntary compliance through the war and was abolished by executive order after Japan's surrender.",
      "stage": "pressure",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "1940s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Twelve days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Office of Censorship. Its director, Byron Price, a former Associated Press editor, wrote a Code of Wartime Practices asking newspapers and broadcasters to withhold information such as troop movements, and most of the press followed it voluntarily.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1941-us-office-of-censorship-wartime-press-code"
    }
  ],
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    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
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