The record
Incidents in Europe, outcome reversed
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
Hungary: National Sovereignty Protection Act and Sovereignty Protection Office, December 2023
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…
Official labels · Stage Pressure · Head of government Viktor Orban · Reversed
Russia: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich sentenced to 16 years
Russia arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in March 2023 on an espionage charge his employer called fabricated, held him for about 15 months before a closed trial, and sentenced him to 16 years before releasing him in a…
Detention and violence · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Reversed
Belarus: journalist Andrzej Poczobut sentenced to eight years
Belarus sentenced Polish-Belarusian correspondent Andrzej Poczobut to eight years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions, after holding him since March 2021. He was freed five years later in a multi-country priso…
Detention and violence · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Alexander Lukashenko · Reversed
Belarus: journalist Andrzej Poczobut is sentenced to eight years for inciting hatred
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…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Alexander Lukashenko · Reversed
Serbia's Public Information Act lets courts fine independent newspapers into financial danger
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…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Slobodan Milosevic · Reversed
United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices
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…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Margaret Thatcher · Reversed
Poland's martial law government shuts nearly all newspapers and interns journalists overnight
On December 13, 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland, cutting phone and telex lines, suspending nearly all newspapers, and interning thousands of people, most Solidarity trade union journalists among them, withi…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Wojciech Jaruzelski · Reversed
Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia is followed by the return of government press controls
Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20-21, 1968 to end the Prague Spring, a period of liberalization under Alexander Dubček that had included the lifting of press controls. In the invasion's aftermath, the new le…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Alexander Dubček · Reversed
Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime 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…
Credential control · Stage Silence · Head of government Francisco Franco · Reversed
Nazi Germany's Editors Law bars Jewish journalists from the press and puts editors under state direction
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…
Credential control · Stage Silence · Head of government Adolf Hitler · Reversed
Portugal's Salazar government formally establishes press controls under a new constitution
Portugal's government, led by Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, had restricted the press since a 1926 military coup while officially denying it did so. In 1933, alongside a new constitution promising freedom of expression, the go…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government António de Oliveira Salazar · Reversed
Incidents (RSS)Incidents (Atom)Incidents (JSON Feed)All incidents (CSV)