# Incidents: insult and defamation laws 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. 14 incidents match this view. - 10 February 2026: [India: one-year prison sentence for the journalist Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case, February 2026](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2026-india-journalist-sentenced-adani-defamation). On February 10, 2026, a court in India sentenced the investigative journalist Ravi Nair to one year in prison and a fine of 5,000 rupees (about US$55) for criminal defamation, an offence under which a statement that damages someone's reput… - 16 January 2025: [Tunisia's cybercrime decree pushes jailed-journalist count to highest since 1992](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-tunisia-record-journalists-jailed-decree-54). The Committee to Protect Journalists found at least four journalists imprisoned under Tunisia's 2022 Decree-Law 54 on cybercrime as of January 2025, including radio hosts Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaies, pushing the country's jailed-journa… - 29 August 2024: [Hong Kong court convicts Stand News editors of sedition](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-hong-kong-stand-news-editors-convicted-sedition). A Hong Kong court convicted former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam of conspiring to publish seditious material, under a colonial-era law, over articles the outlet had run before police raided its newsroom and it closed at… - 1 November 2023: [Turkish authorities detain three journalists under 'disinformation' law](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-turkiye-detains-journalists-disinformation-law). Turkish authorities detained three journalists, jailing columnist Tolga Sardan pending trial, under a 2022 law criminalizing the spread of disinformation, after the government's own disinformation-fighting body disputed their reporting on… - 14 July 2023: [Zimbabwe's Patriotic Act criminalizes journalists' contact with foreign governments](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-zimbabwe-patriotic-act-criminalizes-foreign-contact). President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Patriotic Act, which criminalizes meeting foreign governments or officials with intent to harm Zimbabwe's sovereignty, with penalties up to death for advocating armed intervention and up to ten years… - 15 February 2023: [Russia: journalist Maria Ponomarenko is sentenced to six years for reporting on a Mariupol strike](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-russia-ponomarenko-fake-news-sentence). A Russian court sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison and a five-year ban on journalism under a law criminalizing "false information" about the military, after she published a Telegram post about an airstrike on a M… - 8 February 2023: [Belarus: journalist Andrzej Poczobut is sentenced to eight years for inciting hatred](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-belarus-poczobut-eight-year-sentence). A Belarusian court sentenced dual Belarusian-Polish journalist Andrzej Poczobut to eight years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions, and he was freed three years later as part of a multi-country prisoner exchan… - 4 March 2022: [Russia criminalizes 'fake' reporting on the military, up to 15 years in prison](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2022-russia-criminalizes-fake-war-reports). Russia's parliament passed a law criminalizing the publication of information about the military that contradicts official statements, with penalties up to 15 years in prison, prompting Novaya Gazeta to pull its Ukraine war coverage and th… - 22 January 2022: [Turkiye: journalist Sedef Kabas is arrested for a proverb about President Erdogan](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2022-turkiye-sedef-kabas-insulting-president). Turkish journalist Sedef Kabas was arrested and later convicted under Article 299 of the penal code, which criminalizes insulting the president, after quoting a proverb about a palace becoming a stable during a televised discussion of Erdo… - 30 March 2020: [Hungary criminalizes false coronavirus information and grants Orban decree powers](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-hungary-coronavirus-fake-news-law). Hungary's parliament passed an emergency coronavirus law allowing prison terms of up to five years for spreading information the government deemed false or distorted about the pandemic, and let Prime Minister Viktor Orban rule by decree fo… - 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… - 24 January 2013: [Thailand: magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk is sentenced to 11 years under the lese-majeste law](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-thailand-somyot-lese-majeste-sentence). A Thai court sentenced magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk to 11 years in prison under Article 112 of the penal code, the country's lese-majeste law barring insults to the royal family, over two articles he published under a pen name. - 20 October 1998: [Serbia's Public Information Act lets courts fine independent newspapers into financial danger](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1998-serbia-public-information-act-fines). Serbia's parliament passed a Public Information Act allowing courts to levy same-day fines against newspapers for vaguely defined offenses against the state's interests, and independent papers were fined far more often and more heavily tha… - April 1938: [Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime Press Law](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1938-spain-franco-press-law). While Spain's civil war continued, the Nationalist government led by Francisco Franco enacted a Press Law in April 1938 requiring government permission to found a newspaper, work as a journalist or direct a paper, alongside continued pre-p… Download this view. CSV, JSON or Markdown. 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