| 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) |
| 10 February 2003 | Pentagon sets ground rules for journalists embedded with United States forces in Iraq | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Access bans | George W. Bush | Sustained (14 April 2003) |
| 15 March 2002 | Zimbabwe enacts a law requiring all journalists and media houses to hold government licenses | Zimbabwe (RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Robert Mugabe | Unknown |
| 18 September 2001 | Eritrea: independent press closed and journalists jailed without trial | Eritrea (RSF rank: not recorded) | Detention and violence | Isaias Afwerki | Ongoing |
| 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) |
| 20 October 1998 | Serbia's Public Information Act lets courts fine independent newspapers into financial danger | Serbia (RSF 2026 rank: 104th of 180) | Insult and defamation laws | Slobodan Milosevic | Reversed (1 October 2000) |
| 20 September 1998 | Malaysia pressures domestic media and monitors foreign correspondents after arresting former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim | Malaysia (RSF 2026 rank: 95th of 180) | Surveillance and subpoenas | Mahathir Mohamad | Unknown |
| July 1997 | Peru strips television station owner Baruch Ivcher of his citizenship after critical reporting | Peru (RSF rank: not recorded) | Funding and ownership pressure | Alberto Fujimori | Sustained |
| 1997 | Belarus jails journalist Pavel Sheremet over his reporting for Russian television station ORT | Belarus (RSF 2026 rank: 165th of 180) | Detention and violence | Alexander Lukashenko | Sustained |
| July 1995 | Nigeria's military government convicts journalists by special tribunal over coup-plot reporting | Nigeria (RSF 2026 rank: 112th of 180) | Detention and violence | Sani Abacha | Reversed (15 June 1998) |
| 17 January 1991 | United States military restricts reporters to escorted press pools during the Gulf War | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Access bans | George H. W. Bush | Sustained (28 February 1991) |
| 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) |
| 21 March 1990 | United States Supreme Court strikes down Florida law barring a reporter from discussing his own grand jury testimony | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Secrets and espionage laws | Bob Martinez | Reversed (21 March 1990) |
| 20 December 1989 | United States: Pentagon press pool kept from the opening hours of the Panama invasion, December 1989 | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Access bans | George H. W. Bush | Ongoing (6 April 1990) |
| 14 June 1989 | China expels foreign journalists and restricts coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests | China (RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180) | Expulsion and visa denial | Li Peng | Sustained (1 January 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 |
| 30 August 1986 | Soviet Union: arrest and seven-week detention of American correspondent Nicholas Daniloff in Moscow, 1986 | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Detention and violence | Mikhail Gorbachev | Reversed (29 September 1986) |
| 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) |
| 1985 | United States: Espionage Act conviction of Samuel Loring Morison for leaking satellite photographs to Jane's Defence Weekly, 1985 to 1988 | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Secrets and espionage laws | Ronald Reagan | Upheld by a court (1 January 1988) |
| 25 October 1983 | United States military bars journalists from the invasion of Grenada | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Access bans | Ronald Reagan | Reversed (1 April 1985) |
| 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) |
| 1980 | Haiti's Duvalier government arrests and deports Radio Haiti-Inter staff, driving its director into exile | Haiti (RSF 2026 rank: 107th of 180) | Expulsion and visa denial | Jean-Claude Duvalier | Reversed (1 February 1986) |
| 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) |
| 24 March 1976 | Argentina's military junta threatens journalists with prison for reporting on its opponents | Argentina (RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180) | Detention and violence | Jorge Rafael Videla | Reversed (10 December 1983) |
| 27 October 1975 | United States judge bars the press from reporting a murder suspect's confession before trial | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Prior restraint | J. James Exon | Reversed (30 June 1976) |
| 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) |
| 9 September 1971 | United States: Nixon White House "enemies list" naming journalists, September 1971 | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Surveillance and subpoenas | Richard Nixon | Unknown |
| 16 August 1971 | Nixon White House compiles an enemies list naming journalists for official pressure | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Surveillance and subpoenas | Richard Nixon | Reversed (27 June 1973) |
| 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) |
| 12 April 1971 | United States police search a student newspaper's offices for photographs of a protest | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Surveillance and subpoenas | Ronald Reagan | Upheld by a court (31 May 1978) |
| 1969 | United States Supreme Court rules reporters have no privilege to refuse grand jury subpoenas | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Surveillance and subpoenas | Richard Nixon | Upheld by a court (29 June 1972) |
| 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) |
| 26 October 1962 | West Germany: police raid Der Spiegel's offices and arrest its editors over a defense article | Germany (RSF 2026 rank: 14th of 180) | Detention and violence | Konrad Adenauer | Unknown |
| 24 September 1962 | United States: Texas judge allows televised pretrial hearing in the Billie Sol Estes case; Supreme Court later limits cameras in criminal courtrooms | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Access bans | Price Daniel | Reversed (7 June 1965) |
| 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) |
| 1960 | United States: Montgomery, Alabama commissioner sues The New York Times for libel over a civil rights advertisement | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Lawsuits against the press | John Patterson | Reversed (9 March 1964) |
| 28 September 1959 | Cuba: Prime Minister Fidel Castro publicly criticizes Havana newspapers that questioned his government, September 1959 | Cuba (RSF rank: not recorded) | Official labels | Fidel Castro | Sustained (11 May 1960) |
| November 1955 | United States Senate panel subpoenas dozens of New York Times journalists over Communist ties | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Surveillance and subpoenas | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Sustained (1 December 1956) |
| 19 September 1955 | United States: Tallahatchie County, Mississippi sheriff segregates Black reporters at the Emmett Till murder trial, September 1955 | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Access bans | Hugh L. White | Sustained |
| 1953 | United States: Senator Joseph McCarthy's subcommittee questions New York Post editor James Wechsler, 1953 | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Surveillance and subpoenas | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Unknown |
| 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) |