The record
Incidents: insult and defamation laws, 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
India: one-year prison sentence for the journalist Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case, February 2026
On February 10, 2026, a court in India sentenced the investigative journalist Ravi Nair to one year in prison and a fine of 5,000 rupees (about US$55) for criminal defamation, an offence under which a statement that damages someone's reput…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Narendra Modi · Unknown
Tunisia's cybercrime decree pushes jailed-journalist count to highest since 1992
The Committee to Protect Journalists found at least four journalists imprisoned under Tunisia's 2022 Decree-Law 54 on cybercrime as of January 2025, including radio hosts Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaies, pushing the country's jailed-journa…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Kais Saied · Sustained
Hong Kong court convicts Stand News editors of sedition
A Hong Kong court convicted former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam of conspiring to publish seditious material, under a colonial-era law, over articles the outlet had run before police raided its newsroom and it closed at…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government John Lee · Upheld by a court
Turkish authorities detain three journalists under 'disinformation' law
Turkish authorities detained three journalists, jailing columnist Tolga Sardan pending trial, under a 2022 law criminalizing the spread of disinformation, after the government's own disinformation-fighting body disputed their reporting on…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Recep Tayyip Erdoğan · Ongoing
Zimbabwe's Patriotic Act criminalizes journalists' contact with foreign governments
President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Patriotic Act, which criminalizes meeting foreign governments or officials with intent to harm Zimbabwe's sovereignty, with penalties up to death for advocating armed intervention and up to ten years…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Emmerson Mnangagwa · Sustained
Russia: journalist Maria Ponomarenko is sentenced to six years for reporting on a Mariupol strike
A Russian court sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison and a five-year ban on journalism under a law criminalizing "false information" about the military, after she published a Telegram post about an airstrike on a M…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Sustained
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
Russia criminalizes 'fake' reporting on the military, up to 15 years in prison
Russia's parliament passed a law criminalizing the publication of information about the military that contradicts official statements, with penalties up to 15 years in prison, prompting Novaya Gazeta to pull its Ukraine war coverage and th…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Sustained
Turkiye: journalist Sedef Kabas is arrested for a proverb about President Erdogan
Turkish journalist Sedef Kabas was arrested and later convicted under Article 299 of the penal code, which criminalizes insulting the president, after quoting a proverb about a palace becoming a stable during a televised discussion of Erdo…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Recep Tayyip Erdoğan · Ongoing
Hungary criminalizes false coronavirus information and grants Orban decree powers
Hungary's parliament passed an emergency coronavirus law allowing prison terms of up to five years for spreading information the government deemed false or distorted about the pandemic, and let Prime Minister Viktor Orban rule by decree fo…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Viktor Orban · Unknown
Ecuador's Organic Communication Law creates a regulator that issues hundreds of sanctions against journalists and outlets
Ecuador's National Assembly passed the Organic Communication Law under President Rafael Correa, creating the Superintendency of Information and Communication (SUPERCOM), a regulator that issued more than 675 sanctions against journalists a…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Rafael Correa · Reversed
Thailand: magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk is sentenced to 11 years under the lese-majeste law
A Thai court sentenced magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk to 11 years in prison under Article 112 of the penal code, the country's lese-majeste law barring insults to the royal family, over two articles he published under a pen name.
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Yingluck Shinawatra · Upheld by a court
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
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
Incidents (RSS)Incidents (Atom)Incidents (JSON Feed)All incidents (CSV)