# Incidents, stage: pressure, national level Each incident is a dated action by a government, an official, a regulator, a court or a legislature that limited journalists' ability to gather or publish news. The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct. Filters: country, continent, tactic, stage, from, to, level, actor, leader, outlet, outcome, source_kind, has_case, plus q, sort (date, date_asc, country, tactic, relevance), per_page (up to 100), page and view (table or cards), as query parameters. 41 incidents match this view. - 20 August 2026: [Kazakhstan: fabricated copyright complaints used against journalists](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2026-kazakhstan-copyright-claims-against-press). An investigation found paid services in Kazakhstan filing fabricated copyright complaints, impersonating global brands, to get social media platforms to remove journalists' accounts and posts, alongside criminal prosecutions of the press. - 4 August 2026: [Russia: law on asset freezes and service denials for exiled "foreign agents", August 2026](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2026-russia-new-law-targets-exiled-journalists-assets). On August 4, 2026, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed a law, adopted unanimously by the Russian parliament on July 24, 2026, that allows the authorities to freeze bank accounts, block property and vehicle sales and deny consul… - 28 April 2026: [Appeals court orders FCC to respond to challenge over 'news distortion' policy](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2026-court-orders-fcc-to-answer-news-distortion-challenge). A bipartisan group of former Federal Communications Commission chairs, commissioners and the Radio Television Digital News Association petitioned a federal appeals court to force the FCC to act on a long-pending request to rescind its deca… - April 2026: [El Salvador: freeze on assets of shareholders in El Faro's parent company, February to April 2026](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2026-el-salvador-freezes-el-faro-shareholder-assets). Between February and April 2026, the government of El Salvador, headed by the president, Nayib Bukele, placed "preventative annotations" on a bank account and real estate belonging to two partners of Trípode S.A. de C.V., the parent compan… - 17 September 2025: [United States: Federal Communications Commission chairman's remarks and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, September 2025](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-fcc-pressure-precedes-kimmel-suspension). On September 17, 2025, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the United States regulator of broadcasting, Brendan Carr, said broadcasters could "do this the easy way or the hard way" over remarks by the television ho… - 15 September 2025: [Trump files, then refiles, $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-trump-sues-new-york-times-15-billion). President Trump sued The New York Times and four of its journalists for $15 billion over articles and a book published before the 2024 election; a judge dismissed the sprawling original complaint for violating basic pleading rules, and Tru… - 24 July 2025: [FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger after CBS ombudsman and anti-DEI pledges](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-fcc-approves-paramount-skydance-with-ombudsman-condition). The Federal Communications Commission approved Paramount's sale to Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to install an ombudsman to review complaints of bias at CBS News for two years and pledged to end diversity, equity and inclusion progr… - 18 July 2025: [Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein birthday letter story](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-trump-sues-wall-street-journal-epstein-letter). President Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, its owner Rupert Murdoch and two reporters for at least $10 billion, disputing the newspaper's report describing a bawdy letter he was said to have sent Jeffrey Epstein for a 2003 birthday albu… - 18 July 2025: [Congress cuts $1.1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-congress-rescinds-cpb-funding). At President Trump's request, Congress passed a rescissions package clawing back roughly $1.1 billion already appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating federal funding for NPR, PBS and their member stations. - 1 July 2025: [United States: Paramount settlement of Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview, July 2025](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-paramount-cbs-settle-60-minutes-suit). On July 1, 2025, Paramount, the parent company of the United States broadcaster CBS News, announced that it would settle for US$16 million a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, over how the CBS program 60 M… - 1 May 2025: [United States: Executive Order 14290 directing an end to federal funding for NPR and PBS, May 2025](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-trump-order-ends-cpb-funding-npr-pbs). On May 1, 2025, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed Executive Order 14290, "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media." It directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private non-profit corporation cre… - 25 April 2025: [United States: Department of Justice rescission of rules limiting subpoenas of journalists, April 2025](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-doj-rescinds-media-subpoena-guidelines). 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 Garl… - 22 April 2025: [60 Minutes executive producer resigns, citing lost editorial independence](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-60-minutes-producer-owens-resigns-loss-of-independence). 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned, saying corporate owner Paramount had begun supervising the program's content in new ways while it faced President Trump's lawsuit over a Harris interview and pursued a sale requiring feder… - 22 January 2025: [FCC chair reopens 'news distortion' complaints against CBS and NBC](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-fcc-carr-news-distortion-complaints-nbc-cbs). Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr reopened complaints alleging CBS and NBC distorted the news, demanding CBS turn over the full tape and transcript of a 60 Minutes interview and later accusing NBC's parent Comcast of mis… - 16 December 2024: [Trump sues Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer over final Iowa poll](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-trump-sues-des-moines-register-selzer-poll). President-elect Trump sued the Des Moines Register and longtime pollster Ann Selzer under Iowa's consumer fraud law over her final pre-election poll, which showed Kamala Harris ahead in Iowa days before Trump won the state; a judge later q… - 20 June 2024: [Slovakia's parliament dissolves public broadcaster RTVS, replaces it with STVR](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-slovakia-dissolves-rtvs-creates-stvr). Slovakia's parliament, controlled by Prime Minister Robert Fico's coalition, dissolved public broadcaster RTVS and replaced it with a new entity, STVR, whose director is now chosen through a process giving parliament and the culture minist… - 28 May 2024: [Georgia enacts 'foreign influence' law requiring media to register as foreign-backed](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-georgia-foreign-influence-law). Georgia's parliament passed a law requiring media and civil-society groups that receive 20 percent or more of their funding from abroad to register as organizations "serving the interests of a foreign power," over mass street protests and… - March 2024: [Bombay High Court strikes down India's government 'fact check unit' rule](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-india-court-strikes-down-fact-check-unit). 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 cha… - 20 December 2023: [Hungary: National Sovereignty Protection Act and Sovereignty Protection Office, December 2023](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-hungary-sovereignty-protection-act). On December 20, 2023, the president of Hungary, Katalin Novák, promulgated the National Sovereignty Protection Act, passed by the National Assembly, Hungary's parliament, during the government of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán. The law c… - 22 February 2023: [Turkiye: the broadcast regulator fines and suspends channels for earthquake coverage](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-turkiye-rtuk-fines-earthquake-coverage). 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. - 14 February 2023: [Indian tax authorities search BBC offices weeks after Modi documentary ban](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-india-tax-authorities-raid-bbc-offices). 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 com… - 9 March 2022: [Belarus: Deutsche Welle and other outlets labeled 'extremist'](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2022-belarus-labels-dw-extremist). A Minsk court declared all output from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle "extremist," alongside a local newspaper and a Russian blogger's videos, making it a crime to produce, store or share the labeled material, as a former correspondent… - 23 April 2021: [Russia: independent outlet Meduza designated a 'foreign agent'](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-russia-designates-meduza-foreign-agent). Russia's Justice Ministry labeled the independent news site Meduza and outlet PASMI "foreign agents," a status requiring constant public disclosure, quarterly reports and audits, and carrying up to two years in prison for noncompliance, wh… - 1 April 2021: [Turkiye: the presidency's press card system is found restrictive by the country's top administrative court](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-turkiye-press-card-controls-restrictive). Turkiye's Council of State suspended 2018 rules under which the presidency's Communications Directorate could deny or cancel the yellow and turquoise press cards that let reporters work and enter official buildings, after finding the groun… - 24 July 2020: [Hungary: editor fired and staff resign at Index.hu](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-hungary-index-hu-editor-fired). Index.hu, Hungary's most-read independent news site, fired editor-in-chief Szabolcs Dull weeks after he warned that a change in ownership threatened its independence. Most of the newsroom resigned within days. - 22 March 2019: [Egypt: media law used to fine and block news site al-Mashhad](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2019-egypt-media-law-blocks-al-mashhad). Under a 2018 law that treats any social media account with more than 5,000 followers as a media outlet, Egypt's media regulator fined news site al-Mashhad and ordered internet providers to block it for spreading what it called false news. - 7 March 2019: [Russia: new laws penalize online "fake news" and "disrespecting authorities"](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2019-russia-fake-news-disrespect-law). Russia's parliament passed laws letting courts jail and fine people, including journalists, for posting information the government alone judges to be false, or for statements found to disrespect officials or state symbols online. - 26 October 2018: [Russia: outlet fined $338,000 under the foreign agents law](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-russia-fines-the-new-times). A Moscow court fined the magazine The New Times 22.3 million rubles, about $338,000, for a paperwork lapse under Russia's foreign agents law, a sum its editor said was designed to force the outlet to close. - October 2018: [Egypt: a license requirement leaves an independent news site unable to operate legally for years](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-egypt-scmr-license-requirement-al-manassa). 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. - 16 March 2018: [Tanzania requires bloggers and online publishers to register and pay an annual government fee](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-tanzania-online-content-regulations). Tanzania's government, under President John Magufuli, issued regulations requiring anyone running a blog or website with user content to register with the telecoms regulator and pay an annual fee reported at roughly $930, with vaguely word… - 21 February 2018: [Philippines: a Rappler reporter is barred from the presidential palace](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-philippines-bans-rappler-presidential-palace). President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Rappler reporter Pia Ranada and the outlet's CEO barred from Malacanang Palace, the seat of the Philippine presidency, after the government revoked Rappler's operating license. - February 2017: [Malta: minister orders reporter's bank account frozen](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2017-malta-freezes-caruana-galizia-account). A month after journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia published reporting on members of Malta's government, the economy minister had her bank account frozen, one of dozens of legal actions she faced before she was killed in a car bombing in Octo… - 31 December 2015: [Poland's new government gains power to replace public broadcaster leadership, and journalists are dismissed](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2015-poland-public-media-law-firings). Weeks after winning power, Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party passed a law letting the treasury minister directly appoint and dismiss the heads of public radio and television, and dozens of journalists at the public broadcaster were subs… - September 2013: [Vietnam: Decree 72 restricts blogs to personal information](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-vietnam-decree-72-restricts-blogs). Vietnam's Decree 72 took effect in September 2013, barring bloggers and social media users from linking to or reposting news from press organizations or foreign government websites, restricting them to sharing personal information only. - 25 June 2013: [Ecuador's Organic Communication Law creates a regulator that issues hundreds of sanctions against journalists and outlets](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-ecuador-communications-law-supercom). Ecuador's National Assembly passed the Organic Communication Law under President Rafael Correa, creating the Superintendency of Information and Communication (SUPERCOM), a regulator that issued more than 675 sanctions against journalists a… - 21 December 2010: [Hungary's parliament gives a government-appointed media council power to fine outlets for unbalanced coverage](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2010-hungary-media-law-content-authority). Hungary's parliament, controlled by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, passed a media law creating a government-appointed National Media and Infocommunications Authority empowered to fine any outlet, print, broadcast or online, fo… - 15 March 2002: [Zimbabwe enacts a law requiring all journalists and media houses to hold government licenses](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2002-zimbabwe-aippa-media-licensing). Zimbabwe's parliament passed the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), requiring every journalist and media company to obtain a government license renewed every two years, weeks before a closely contested 2002 presid… - 20 September 1998: [Malaysia pressures domestic media and monitors foreign correspondents after arresting former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1998-malaysia-anwar-arrest-press-restrictions). 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 w… - 9 September 1971: [United States: Nixon White House "enemies list" naming journalists, September 1971](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1971-nixon-white-house-compiles-enemies-list). 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 i… - 16 August 1971: [Nixon White House compiles an enemies list naming journalists for official pressure](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1971-us-nixon-enemies-list). 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. It be… - 19 December 1941: [United States creates an Office of Censorship and a wartime code for the press](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1941-us-office-of-censorship-wartime-press-code). 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… Download this view. CSV, JSON or Markdown. 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