The record
Incidents in Asia
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.
All filters: country, dates, head of government, sort
China expels foreign journalists and restricts coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests
After declaring martial law in Beijing on May 20, 1989, China's government imposed rigid restrictions on coverage of pro-democracy protests and, following the military's June 3-4 clearing of Tiananmen Square, expelled Associated Press corr…
Expulsion and visa denial · Stage Punish · Head of government Li Peng · Sustained
Burma's new military government tightens pre-publication press controls after seizing power
After crushing the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, Burma's new military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, tightened an existing pre-publication press controls board and raised penalties for unauthorized publishing to se…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Saw Maung · Ongoing
Malaysia: Printing Presses and Publications Act amended to bar court review of publishing permits, 1987
Malaysia's government amended the Printing Presses and Publications Act in 1987 to expand its power to ban or restrict publications and to bar any court challenge to the suspension or revocation of a publishing permit. The change came the…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Mahathir Mohamad · Sustained
South Korea's martial-law government purges journalists who resisted press controls
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…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Chun Doo-hwan · Reversed
India imposes pre-press controls on every newspaper during the 1975 Emergency
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…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Indira Gandhi · Reversed
Philippines President Marcos closes every major news outlet under martial law
President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, and the next day ordered the military to take over nearly every newspaper, radio and television station in the Philippines, jailing prominent publishers and editors and…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Ferdinand Marcos · Reversed
Israel retains a British-era law giving the military the power to review and restrict the press
When Israel declared independence in 1948 under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, it retained a British Mandate-era Press Ordinance giving the military the power to review and restrict publications on security grounds, later formalized thro…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government David Ben-Gurion · Ongoing
Japan: government requires clearance to publish war news under the Newspaper Law, 1937
After Japan's war with China escalated into full scale conflict in July 1937, the government invoked Article 27 of the Newspaper Law to require government clearance before publishing war related news, while a Home Ministry directive to loc…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Fumimaro Konoe · Sustained
Dutch East Indies: Colonial authorities end publication of the communist newspaper Mawa under Penal Code Article 153 bis, 1926
In 1926, colonial authorities in the Dutch East Indies ended publication of Mawa, a newspaper linked to the Communist Association of the Indies in Soerakarta, through repeated use of Article 153 bis of the colonial Penal Code, which crimin…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Andries Cornelis Dirk de Graeff · Sustained
Ottoman Empire bars lawmakers and officials from editing newspapers and jails a leading editor
In March 1913 the Ottoman government amended its 1909 press law, barring members of parliament and state officials from serving as newspaper editors and applying the ban retroactively to every periodical already in print. The revision foll…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Mehmed V · Sustained
Philippines: United States colonial government's libel law is used to close the newspaper El Renacimiento
The United States colonial government in the Philippines enacted a criminal libel law in 1901 that Governor-General William Howard Taft defended by saying Filipinos were unused to the freedom of the press. The law was used in 1908 to convi…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government William Howard Taft · Upheld by a court
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