# Incidents: licensing and closure of outlets, 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. 26 incidents match this view. - 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… - 3 September 2025: [Ethiopia arrests at least six journalists including Sheger FM staff over election-year coverage](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-ethiopia-arrests-journalists-sheger-fm). Ethiopian authorities arrested at least six journalists between August and September 2025, including three from Sheger FM after the Ethiopian Media Authority ordered the station to delete a broadcast it accused of bias and inciting violenc… - 29 January 2025: [Pakistan amends cybercrime law to create new agency policing 'fake' online content](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-pakistan-amends-peca-cybercrime-law). 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 informatio… - 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… - 4 March 2024: [Milei's government shuts down Argentina's state news agency Telam](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-argentina-milei-closes-telam). President Javier Milei's government fenced off and shut down Telam, Argentina's state-owned news agency, calling it a public-relations operation for the prior Kirchnerist governments; unions and journalist groups called the closure one of… - 13 February 2023: [Cambodia: Prime Minister Hun Sen orders Voice of Democracy's license revoked over one article](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-cambodia-shutters-voice-of-democracy). Prime Minister Hun Sen personally ordered the license of independent outlet Voice of Democracy revoked over an article about an earthquake-aid agreement signed by his son, rejecting the outlet's published apology. - 5 September 2022: [Russia: a Moscow court suspends Novaya Gazeta's print license](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2022-russia-suspends-novaya-gazeta-license). A Moscow court suspended the print license of Novaya Gazeta, whose editor Dmitry Muratov shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, after the media regulator Roskomnadzor said the paper had not provided documents about a 2006 change of ownership. - 24 June 2021: [China (Hong Kong): Apple Daily closes after its assets are frozen under the national security law](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-hong-kong-apple-daily-forced-closure). Apple Daily, Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy newspaper, printed its final edition after the government froze its parent company's assets and arrested its editors under the national security law imposed on the territory in 2020. - 8 March 2021: [Myanmar junta revokes five outlets' licenses and raids newsrooms after coup](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-myanmar-junta-revokes-media-licenses). 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 ou… - 14 February 2021: [Hungary: Klubradio loses its terrestrial broadcast license over its tender application](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-hungary-klubradio-loses-broadcast-license). Hungary's Media Council ended Klubradio's decades-old terrestrial broadcast license, citing errors in its renewal application, after the station had built a following as one of the country's few remaining independent voices. - 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… - 4 September 2017: [Cambodia's government forces the closure of The Cambodia Daily with a disputed multimillion-dollar tax bill](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2017-cambodia-daily-closed-tax-bill). 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 aga… - 27 July 2016: [Turkey closes more than 100 media outlets by decree after a failed coup attempt](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2016-turkey-post-coup-media-closures). 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… - 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… - 27 May 2007: [Venezuela: the government declines to renew RCTV's broadcast concession](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2007-venezuela-rctv-license-not-renewed). Venezuela's government let Radio Caracas Television's twenty-year broadcast concession expire rather than renew it, replacing the country's most-watched channel with a new state broadcaster; a regional human rights court later found the de… - 12 September 2003: [Zimbabwe: police close the Daily News under the media registration law](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2003-zimbabwe-daily-news-shut-down). Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled the Daily News, the country's largest independent newspaper, was operating unregistered under a 2002 media law, and police shut its offices the next day; the paper stayed closed for nearly seven years. - 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… - 14 April 2001: [State-controlled Gazprom takes formal control of Russia's independent NTV television network](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2001-russia-gazprom-takeover-ntv). Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas company, used debts owed by NTV's parent company to take control of the country's last major independent television network at a shareholders' meeting, replacing its owner and top editors with its own… - October 1988: [United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1988-uk-broadcasting-ban-sinn-fein). Home Secretary Douglas Hurd directed British broadcasters in October 1988 not to air the voices of representatives of Sinn Féin, a party linked to the Irish Republican Army, and other groups linked to violence in Northern Ireland. Broadcas… - 31 July 1980: [South Korea's martial-law government purges journalists who resisted press controls](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1980-south-korea-chun-doo-hwan-press-purge). 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, dism… - 26 June 1975: [India imposes pre-press controls on every newspaper during the 1975 Emergency](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1975-india-emergency-press-censorship). 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 t… - 24 May 1960: [Egypt's Nasser government nationalizes every newspaper and magazine in the country](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1960-egypt-nasser-nationalizes-press). President Gamal Abdel Nasser's government issued a decree on May 24, 1960 placing every newspaper and magazine in Egypt under state ownership and management, with the government appointing editors and deciding content, ending private contr… - 17 July 1950: [South Africa's Suppression of Communism Act lets the government ban publications and restrict individuals](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1950-south-africa-suppression-of-communism-act). Under Prime Minister Daniel François Malan, South Africa's parliament approved the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950, defining communism broadly enough to cover most opposition to apartheid. It let the government ban organizations and p… - 1939: [Brazil's Vargas government creates a state messaging department with broad press powers](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1939-brazil-vargas-creates-dip). President Getúlio Vargas created the Department of Press and state messaging in 1939 during Brazil's Estado Novo dictatorship, giving the government direct control over what newspapers, radio and film could publish. The department operated… - 4 October 1933: [Nazi Germany's Editors Law bars Jewish journalists from the press and puts editors under state direction](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1933-germany-editors-law). Nine months after Adolf Hitler became chancellor, Germany's Schriftleitergesetz, or Editors Law, required journalists to register with a new state-controlled Reich Press Chamber and barred non-Aryans from the profession, while directing ed… - 1922: [Soviet Russia creates Glavlit, a central office to review all printed material before publication](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1922-ussr-glavlit-censorship). In 1922, under Vladimir Lenin's government, Soviet Russia created Glavlit, a single agency with final authority to review newspapers, books, plays and even posters before they could be printed or performed. By 1930 no publication in the So… Download this view. CSV, JSON or Markdown. 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