The record
Incidents in North America, 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.
All filters: country, dates, head of government, sort
United States: White House hard-pass deactivations for CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters, September 2026
On September 18, 2026, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Truth Social, a social media platform, and in the Oval Office that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be banned from the White House, the president's office…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Customs officers seize Grayzone editor's phones at Virginia airport over Iran reporting
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal at Washington Dulles Airport, questioned him about his reporting trips to Iran, and seized both of his phones without his consent; the phones were returned…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Appeals court orders FCC to respond to challenge over 'news distortion' policy
A bipartisan group of former Federal Communications Commission chairs, commissioners and the Radio Television Digital News Association petitioned a federal appeals court to force the FCC to act on a long-pending request to rescind its deca…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
El Salvador: freeze on assets of shareholders in El Faro's parent company, February to April 2026
Between February and April 2026, the government of El Salvador, headed by the president, Nayib Bukele, placed "preventative annotations" on a bank account and real estate belonging to two partners of Trípode S.A. de C.V., the parent compan…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Nayib Bukele · Sustained
White House closes 'Upper Press' section of West Wing to reporters
The White House began requiring reporters to make appointments before entering the 'Upper Press' area of the West Wing, home to the press secretary's and senior press aides' offices, citing a need to protect sensitive material after accusi…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: News organizations turn in their Pentagon press credentials, October 2025
Beginning on October 15, 2025, reporters from at least 30 news organizations vacated the press workspace at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, rather than sign the department's new credential pledge,…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: Department of Defense press credential rules requiring approval before release of information, September 2025
On September 19, 2025, the United States Department of Defense, the federal department that provides the country's military forces, issued new credential rules for reporters at the Pentagon, its headquarters building, under the Secretary o…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: Federal Communications Commission chairman's remarks and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, September 2025
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…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Trump files, then refiles, $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times
President Trump sued The New York Times and four of its journalists for $15 billion over articles and a book published before the 2024 election; a judge dismissed the sprawling original complaint for violating basic pleading rules, and Tru…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger after CBS ombudsman and anti-DEI pledges
The Federal Communications Commission approved Paramount's sale to Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to install an ombudsman to review complaints of bias at CBS News for two years and pledged to end diversity, equity and inclusion progr…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein birthday letter story
President Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, its owner Rupert Murdoch and two reporters for at least $10 billion, disputing the newspaper's report describing a bawdy letter he was said to have sent Jeffrey Epstein for a 2003 birthday albu…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Congress cuts $1.1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting
At President Trump's request, Congress passed a rescissions package clawing back roughly $1.1 billion already appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating federal funding for NPR, PBS and their member stations.
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: Paramount settlement of Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview, July 2025
On July 1, 2025, Paramount, the parent company of the United States broadcaster CBS News, announced that it would settle for US$16 million a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, over how the CBS program 60 M…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: Executive Order 14290 directing an end to federal funding for NPR and PBS, May 2025
On May 1, 2025, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed Executive Order 14290, "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media." It directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private non-profit corporation cre…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
United States: Department of Justice rescission of rules limiting subpoenas of journalists, April 2025
On April 25, 2025, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, head of the Department of Justice, the federal department that prosecutes federal crimes, rescinded rules adopted in 2021 and 2022 under her predecessor, Merrick Garl…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
60 Minutes executive producer resigns, citing lost editorial independence
60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned, saying corporate owner Paramount had begun supervising the program's content in new ways while it faced President Trump's lawsuit over a Harris interview and pursued a sale requiring feder…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
White House ends wire services' guaranteed seat in the press pool
The White House ended the decades-old practice of guaranteeing wire services Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg a daily seat in the small press pool that covers the president, making them compete instead for a single rotating print sl…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: U.S. Agency for Global Media action to shut down Voice of America operations, March 2025
Beginning on March 15, 2025, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the United States federal agency that oversees the government's international broadcasters, placed most of its staff on paid administrative leave and moved to shut down…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Silence · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: White House takes over selection of the presidential press pool, February 2025
On February 25, 2025, the White House announced that it would decide which journalists join the press pool, the small rotating group of reporters who cover the president of the United States in spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: White House exclusion of the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, February 2025
On February 11, 2025, the White House, the office of the president of the United States, began barring journalists from the Associated Press (AP), a United States news agency, from the Oval Office and Air Force One, the aircraft that carri…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Border czar Tom Homan says ICE media ride-alongs may end over leaks
White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration might stop letting journalists ride along on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations after an Aurora, Colorado raid captured far fewer people than expected, which officials a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
FCC chair reopens 'news distortion' complaints against CBS and NBC
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr reopened complaints alleging CBS and NBC distorted the news, demanding CBS turn over the full tape and transcript of a 60 Minutes interview and later accusing NBC's parent Comcast of mis…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Trump sues Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer over final Iowa poll
President-elect Trump sued the Des Moines Register and longtime pollster Ann Selzer under Iowa's consumer fraud law over her final pre-election poll, which showed Kamala Harris ahead in Iowa days before Trump won the state; a judge later q…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Guatemala convicts investigative journalist Jose Ruben Zamora on money-laundering charge
A Guatemalan court convicted El Periodico founder Jose Ruben Zamora of money laundering and sentenced him to six years in prison, months after his newspaper, known for investigating government corruption, was forced to close; press-freedom…
Detention and violence · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Alejandro Giammattei · Ongoing
Nicaragua strips 94 political opponents, including journalists, of citizenship
A Nicaraguan appeals court stripped 94 government opponents, including exiled journalists Carlos Fernando Chamorro and Alvaro Navarro, of their citizenship, days after President Daniel Ortega released 222 political prisoners to the United…
Expulsion and visa denial · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Daniel Ortega · Sustained
FBI raids Project Veritas founder's home over Ashley Biden diary investigation
FBI agents raided Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe's New York home and seized his phones as part of an investigation into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Biden's daughter, which the group had reported…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Joe Biden · Unknown
Justice Department bars seizing reporters' phone and email records
After it came to light that the Trump-era Justice Department had secretly obtained the phone and email records of reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a policy barring prosec…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Joe Biden · Reversed
Political appointees alter CDC coronavirus guidance before public release
Reporting in 2020 found that political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services rewrote or edited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's public coronavirus guidance and its weekly scientific bulletin before relea…
Prior restraint · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
Federal officers restrict press access to Portland protests; judge orders them to stop
After federal officers deployed to Portland used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on journalists and legal observers covering protests, the American Civil Liberties Union sued, and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction b…
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
United States indicts WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act
The United States indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on 17 counts under the Espionage Act over the 2010 publication of leaked military and diplomatic files, charges press-freedom groups said could expose ordinary national-security j…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
White House revokes CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's press credential after a news conference exchange with President Trump
After CNN's Jim Acosta questioned President Trump at a news conference and briefly kept hold of a microphone as an intern reached for it, the White House suspended his hard pass, the standing credential letting reporters enter the grounds;…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
United States: White House suspension of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's hard pass, November 2018
On November 7, 2018, the White House suspended the hard pass of CNN's White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, after what Gulf News called a "heated confrontation" between Acosta and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, at a new…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Nicaragua: freelance correspondent detained and deported after online campaign
A coordinated online campaign accused freelance correspondent Carl David Goette-Luciak of being a foreign agent and circulated his home address, after which he was detained and deported from Nicaragua in September 2018.
Expulsion and visa denial · Stage Punish · Head of government Daniel Ortega · Sustained
Mexico: journalist Carmen Aristegui receives Pegasus spyware through phishing texts
Citizen Lab, R3D and Article 19 documented Pegasus spyware sent to Mexican investigative journalists Carmen Aristegui and Carlos Loret de Mola through phishing text messages, which the Mexican government denied having sent.
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Enrique Pena Nieto · Unknown
United States pursues New York Times reporter James Risen's testimony for years before dropping its demand for his source
For years, federal prosecutors sought New York Times reporter James Risen's testimony identifying a confidential source in a CIA leak case; the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, but Attorney General Eric Holder ultimately chose no…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Reversed
United States: Espionage Act prosecutions of sources for leaks to the press, 2009 to 2013
A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organization in New York that documents cases of journalists imprisoned or killed worldwide, published on October 10, 2013, found that since 2009 the United States Depart…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Unknown
United States search warrant names Fox News reporter James Rosen a possible co-conspirator in a leak case
A 2010 FBI search-warrant affidavit, unsealed in 2013, described Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible co-conspirator in violating the Espionage Act because he sought classified information from a State Department analyst, and used t…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Sustained
United States Justice Department secretly seizes two months of Associated Press phone records
The U.S. Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records from more than 20 Associated Press phone lines during a leak investigation, notifying the news agency only after the fact; AP called the scope of the seizure unj…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Sustained
United States prosecutes former CIA officer John Kiriakou under the Espionage Act for identifying a covert colleague to a journalist
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who in 2007 was the first CIA officer to publicly describe the agency's waterboarding of a detainee, pleaded guilty to identifying a covert colleague to a journalist and was sentenced under the Espionage A…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Upheld by a court
United States charges Army analyst Chelsea Manning under the Espionage Act for leaking to WikiLeaks
The U.S. Army charged intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning under the Espionage Act, a 1917 law against disclosing defense information, after she gave WikiLeaks, a website that publishes leaked documents, a large archive of military and dip…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Reversed
New York Times reporter Judith Miller jailed for refusing to name a confidential source in the Valerie Plame affair
A federal judge jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller for contempt after she refused to tell a grand jury who told her the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, part of a special counsel's investigation into the leak.
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government George W. Bush · Upheld by a court
Pentagon sets ground rules for journalists embedded with United States forces in Iraq
Ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon assigned about 600 journalists to travel with United States military units under written ground rules restricting what they could report about troop numbers, operations and casualties.
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government George W. Bush · Sustained
United States military restricts reporters to escorted press pools during the Gulf War
The U.S. military required reporters covering the 1991 Gulf War to work in escorted "pools" rather than move freely, reviewed pool dispatches before release, and reporters who left the pools were captured or detained.
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government George H. W. Bush · Sustained
United States military bars journalists from the invasion of Grenada
When United States forces invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada on October 25, 1983, military commanders kept all journalists away from the island for the first two days of fighting, citing operational reasons. Protests from news organiz…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Ronald Reagan · Reversed
Haiti's Duvalier government arrests and deports Radio Haiti-Inter staff, driving its director into exile
Under President Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haitian authorities arrested and deported staff of Radio Haiti-Inter, an independent station that had reported critically on the government, forcing its director, journalist Jean Dominique, into exile…
Expulsion and visa denial · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Jean-Claude Duvalier · Reversed
United States: Nixon White House "enemies list" naming journalists, September 1971
On September 9, 1971, the office of Charles Colson, special counsel to the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, sent White House Counsel John Dean, the president's lawyer on official matters, a memorandum naming 20 people as an i…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Richard Nixon · Unknown
Nixon White House compiles an enemies list naming journalists for official pressure
White House Counsel John Dean wrote a memo on how to use federal agencies against President Nixon's political opponents, and the resulting list of more than 200 names included journalists such as CBS News correspondent Daniel Schorr. It be…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Richard Nixon · Reversed
United States government seeks an injunction to stop The New York Times publishing the Pentagon Papers
After The New York Times began publishing a leaked secret history of the Vietnam War, the Nixon administration obtained a court order stopping further publication, the first such order against a major American newspaper. The Supreme Court…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Richard Nixon · Reversed
United States Supreme Court rules reporters have no privilege to refuse grand jury subpoenas
Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Paul Branzburg was subpoenaed by a Kentucky grand jury, a body that investigates possible crimes, after he wrote about drug users he had observed. The Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the First Amendment…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Richard Nixon · Upheld by a court
United States Senate panel subpoenas dozens of New York Times journalists over Communist ties
The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator James Eastland, issued 35 subpoenas over past or present Communist Party ties in the press, and 26 of them went to New York Times staff. The newspaper protested but several employee…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Dwight D. Eisenhower · Sustained
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