Incidents in Europe, 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.

20 incidents match this view.

Date	Incident	Country	Tactic	Head of government	Outcome
August 4, 2026	Russia: law on asset freezes and service denials for exiled "foreign agents", August 2026	Russia	Official labels	Vladimir Putin	Sustained (August 4, 2026)
September 5, 2025	Serbian police strike, detain and disarm journalists covering anti-government protests	Serbia	Detention and violence	Aleksandar Vucic	Ongoing
June 20, 2024	Slovakia's parliament dissolves public broadcaster RTVS, replaces it with STVR	Slovakia	Licensing and closure of outlets	Robert Fico	Sustained (July 4, 2024)
December 20, 2023	Hungary: National Sovereignty Protection Act and Sovereignty Protection Office, December 2023	Hungary	Official labels	Viktor Orban	Reversed (June 30, 2026)
March 4, 2022	Russia criminalizes 'fake' reporting on the military, up to 15 years in prison	Russia	Insult and defamation laws	Vladimir Putin	Sustained
May 19, 2021	Belarus blocks Tut.by and arrests its editors as 'extremist'	Belarus	Shutdowns and blocking	Alexander Lukashenko	Sustained
March 30, 2020	Hungary criminalizes false coronavirus information and grants Orban decree powers	Hungary	Insult and defamation laws	Viktor Orban	Unknown
December 31, 2015	Poland's new government gains power to replace public broadcaster leadership, and journalists are dismissed	Poland	Funding and ownership pressure	Beata Szydlo	Sustained (December 31, 2019)
August 18, 2013	United Kingdom detains journalist's partner under terrorism law and oversees destruction of Guardian hard drives holding Snowden files	United Kingdom	Surveillance and subpoenas	David Cameron	Upheld by a court (January 19, 2016)
December 21, 2010	Hungary's parliament gives a government-appointed media council power to fine outlets for unbalanced coverage	Hungary	Funding and ownership pressure	Viktor Orban	Sustained (January 1, 2011)
October 7, 2006	Investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya is shot dead in Moscow; a former police officer is later convicted of organizing the killing	Russia	Detention and violence	Vladimir Putin	Upheld by a court (June 9, 2014)
April 14, 2001	State-controlled Gazprom takes formal control of Russia's independent NTV television network	Russia	Funding and ownership pressure	Vladimir Putin	Sustained (April 14, 2001)
October 20, 1998	Serbia's Public Information Act lets courts fine independent newspapers into financial danger	Serbia	Insult and defamation laws	Slobodan Milosevic	Reversed (January 1, 2001)
October 1988	United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices	United Kingdom	Licensing and closure of outlets	Margaret Thatcher	Reversed (September 16, 1994)
December 13, 1981	Poland's martial law government shuts nearly all newspapers and interns journalists overnight	Poland	Shutdowns and blocking	Wojciech Jaruzelski	Reversed (July 22, 1983)
August 21, 1968	Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia is followed by the return of government press press controls	Czechia	Prior restraint	Alexander Dubček	Reversed (November 1, 1989)
April 1938	Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime Press Law	Spain	Credential control	Francisco Franco	Reversed (April 1, 1977)
October 4, 1933	Nazi Germany's Editors Law bars Jewish journalists from the press and puts editors under state direction	Germany	Credential control	Adolf Hitler	Reversed (May 8, 1945)
1933	Portugal's Salazar government formally establishes press press controls under a new constitution	Portugal	Prior restraint	António de Oliveira Salazar	Reversed (April 25, 1974)
1922	Soviet Russia creates Glavlit, a central office to review all printed material before publication	Russia	Prior restraint	Vladimir Lenin	Ongoing (January 1, 1989)

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