| 29 October 2025 | Tanzania shuts down internet access on election day amid unrest | Tanzania (RSF 2026 rank: 117th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Samia Suluhu Hassan | Unknown |
| 15 March 2025 | United States: U.S. Agency for Global Media action to shut down Voice of America operations, March 2025 | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Donald Trump | Ongoing (28 March 2025) |
| 4 March 2024 | Milei's government shuts down Argentina's state news agency Telam | Argentina (RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Javier Milei | Sustained |
| 21 August 2023 | India: Gaon Savera's Facebook and X accounts blocked | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Narendra Modi | Unknown |
| 13 February 2023 | Cambodia: Prime Minister Hun Sen orders Voice of Democracy's license revoked over one article | Cambodia (RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Hun Sen | Sustained (13 February 2023) |
| 5 September 2022 | Russia: a Moscow court suspends Novaya Gazeta's print license | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Vladimir Putin | Sustained (5 September 2022) |
| 4 March 2022 | Russia: regulator blocks BBC Russian, Deutsche Welle and other outlets | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Vladimir Putin | Sustained (4 March 2022) |
| 24 June 2021 | China (Hong Kong): Apple Daily closes after its assets are frozen under the national security law | Hong Kong (RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Carrie Lam | Sustained (24 June 2021) |
| 18 May 2021 | Belarus blocks Tut.by and arrests its editors as 'extremist' | Belarus (RSF 2026 rank: 165th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Alexander Lukashenko | Sustained |
| April 2021 | Poland: state oil company Orlen buys the Polska Press newspaper group | Poland (RSF 2026 rank: 27th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Mateusz Morawiecki | Sustained (1 April 2021) |
| 8 March 2021 | Myanmar junta revokes five outlets' licenses and raids newsrooms after coup | Myanmar (RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Min Aung Hlaing | Sustained |
| 14 February 2021 | Hungary: Klubradio loses its terrestrial broadcast license over its tender application | Hungary (RSF 2026 rank: 74th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Viktor Orban | Upheld by a court (1 September 2021) |
| February 2021 | Myanmar: military cuts mobile internet after seizing power | Myanmar (RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Min Aung Hlaing | Ongoing (3 May 2021) |
| 16 November 2019 | Iran: near-total internet shutdown during fuel-price protests | Iran (RSF 2026 rank: 177th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Hassan Rouhani | Reversed (23 November 2019) |
| 5 August 2019 | India imposes a communications blackout in Jammu and Kashmir after revoking the region's special status | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Narendra Modi | Ongoing (5 August 2020) |
| 29 November 2018 | Hungary: formation of the KESMA pro-government media foundation | Hungary (RSF 2026 rank: 74th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Viktor Orban | Sustained (29 November 2018) |
| 21 March 2018 | Türkiye: Dogan Holding sells its media outlets to Demiroren | Türkiye (RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Sustained (21 March 2018) |
| 4 September 2017 | Cambodia's government forces the closure of The Cambodia Daily with a disputed multimillion-dollar tax bill | Cambodia (RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Hun Sen | Sustained (4 September 2017) |
| 27 July 2016 | Turkey closes more than 100 media outlets by decree after a failed coup attempt | Türkiye (RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Sustained (31 December 2016) |
| 4 March 2016 | Türkiye: court installs trustees at Zaman newspaper | Türkiye (RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Sustained (4 March 2016) |
| June 2010 | Israel: a court bars any mention of the 'Prisoner X' case | Israel (RSF 2026 rank: 116th of 180) | Prior restraint | Benjamin Netanyahu | Unknown (1 June 2010) |
| 27 May 2007 | Venezuela: the government declines to renew RCTV's broadcast concession | Venezuela (RSF 2026 rank: 159th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Hugo Chavez | Sustained (8 September 2015) |
| 12 September 2003 | Zimbabwe: police close the Daily News under the media registration law | Zimbabwe (RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Robert Mugabe | Reversed (27 May 2010) |
| 14 April 2001 | State-controlled Gazprom takes formal control of Russia's independent NTV television network | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Vladimir Putin | Sustained (14 April 2001) |
| 8 November 1990 | United States federal court bars CNN from broadcasting recordings of Manuel Noriega's calls with his lawyers | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Prior restraint | George H. W. Bush | Upheld by a court (18 November 1990) |
| October 1988 | United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices | United Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Margaret Thatcher | Reversed (16 September 1994) |
| 18 September 1988 | Burma's new military government tightens pre-publication press controls after seizing power | Myanmar (RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180) | Prior restraint | Saw Maung | Ongoing (1 January 1989) |
| 1987 | Malaysia: Printing Presses and Publications Act amended to bar court review of publishing permits, 1987 | Malaysia (RSF 2026 rank: 95th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Mahathir Mohamad | Sustained |
| 2 November 1985 | South Africa bans television and photographic coverage of unrest under a state of emergency | South Africa (RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | P. W. Botha | Reversed (1 June 1990) |
| 13 December 1981 | Poland's martial law government shuts nearly all newspapers and interns journalists overnight | Poland (RSF 2026 rank: 27th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Wojciech Jaruzelski | Reversed (22 July 1983) |
| 31 July 1980 | South Korea's martial-law government purges journalists who resisted press controls | South Korea (RSF 2026 rank: 47th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Chun Doo-hwan | Reversed (1 June 1987) |
| 19 October 1977 | South Africa bans The World and Weekend World newspapers and detains editor Percy Qoboza | South Africa (RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Balthazar Johannes Vorster | Sustained (1 March 1978) |
| 26 June 1975 | India imposes pre-press controls on every newspaper during the 1975 Emergency | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Prior restraint | Indira Gandhi | Reversed (21 March 1977) |
| 11 September 1973 | Chile's military government shuts opposition radio stations and newspapers after the 1973 coup | Chile (RSF 2026 rank: 70th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Augusto Pinochet | Sustained (1 March 1990) |
| 17 November 1972 | United Kingdom court bars The Sunday Times from publishing an article on thalidomide | United Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180) | Prior restraint | Edward Heath | Reversed (26 April 1979) |
| 21 September 1972 | Philippines President Marcos closes every major news outlet under martial law | Philippines (RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Ferdinand Marcos | Reversed (25 February 1986) |
| 15 June 1971 | United States government seeks an injunction to stop The New York Times publishing the Pentagon Papers | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Prior restraint | Richard Nixon | Reversed (30 June 1971) |
| 13 December 1968 | Brazil's military government decrees the Fifth Institutional Act and moves to control the press | Brazil (RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180) | Prior restraint | Artur da Costa e Silva | Unknown |
| 21 August 1968 | Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia is followed by the return of government press controls | Czechia (RSF 2026 rank: 11th of 180) | Prior restraint | Alexander Dubček | Reversed (1 November 1989) |
| 24 May 1960 | Egypt's Nasser government nationalizes every newspaper and magazine in the country | Egypt (RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Gamal Abdel Nasser | Ongoing (1 January 1989) |
| October 1951 | Argentina: President Juan Perón's government hands the expropriated newspaper La Prensa to the CGT labor federation, October 1951 | Argentina (RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Juan Perón | Sustained (1 October 1951) |
| 17 July 1950 | South Africa's Suppression of Communism Act lets the government ban publications and restrict individuals | South Africa (RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180) | Prior restraint | Daniel François Malan | Reversed (31 July 1991) |
| 1948 | Israel retains a British-era law giving the military the power to review and restrict the press | Israel (RSF 2026 rank: 116th of 180) | Prior restraint | David Ben-Gurion | Ongoing (1 January 1989) |
| 16 April 1944 | Australia's wartime government seizes a Sydney newspaper edition under press controls rules | Australia (RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180) | Prior restraint | John Curtin | Reversed (18 April 1944) |
| 8 May 1941 | Greece: collaborationist government creates a Directorate-General for Press and Radio to review films and publications before release | Greece (RSF rank: not recorded) | Prior restraint | Georgios Tsolakoglou | Sustained |
| 3 September 1939 | Canada: War Measures Act regulations authorize review of hundreds of newspapers and ban political organizations | Canada (RSF 2026 rank: 20th of 180) | Prior restraint | William Lyon Mackenzie King | Sustained (31 December 1945) |
| 1939 | Brazil's Vargas government creates a state messaging department with broad press powers | Brazil (RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Getúlio Vargas | Reversed (1 January 1945) |
| April 1938 | Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime Press Law | Spain (RSF 2026 rank: 29th of 180) | Credential control | Francisco Franco | Reversed (1 April 1977) |
| July 1937 | Japan: government requires clearance to publish war news under the Newspaper Law, 1937 | Japan (RSF rank: not recorded) | Prior restraint | Fumimaro Konoe | Sustained |
| 4 October 1933 | Nazi Germany's Editors Law bars Jewish journalists, 1933 | Germany (RSF 2026 rank: 14th of 180) | Credential control | Adolf Hitler | Reversed (8 May 1945) |