The record
Incidents: insult and defamation laws, 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
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
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
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 States: Montgomery, Alabama commissioner sues The New York Times for libel over a civil rights advertisement
L. B. Sullivan, an elected Montgomery, Alabama city commissioner who supervised the police department, sued The New York Times for libel over a 1960 civil rights advertisement and won a $500,000 jury verdict. On March 9, 1964, the Supreme…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Punish · Head of government John Patterson · 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
United States: President Theodore Roosevelt seeks criminal libel indictments against the New York World and the Indianapolis News over Panama Canal reporting
President Theodore Roosevelt sought federal criminal libel indictments against the publishers of the New York World and the Indianapolis News after they reported that he and other officials had profited from the United States' purchase of…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Theodore Roosevelt · Reversed
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