The record
Incidents
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
Zimbabwe: police close the Daily News under the media registration law
Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled the Daily News, the country's largest independent newspaper, was operating unregistered under a 2002 media law, and police shut its offices the next day; the paper stayed closed for nearly seven years.
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Robert Mugabe · Reversed
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
Zimbabwe enacts a law requiring all journalists and media houses to hold government licenses
Zimbabwe's parliament passed the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), requiring every journalist and media company to obtain a government license renewed every two years, weeks before a closely contested 2002 presid…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Pressure · Head of government Robert Mugabe · Unknown
Eritrea: independent press closed and journalists jailed without trial
Eritrea's government closed every private newspaper and jailed at least nineteen journalists, including Dawit Isaac of the paper Setit, without charge or trial in September 2001, after suspending the constitution. Several have never been p…
Detention and violence · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Isaias Afwerki · Ongoing
State-controlled Gazprom takes formal control of Russia's independent NTV television network
Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas company, used debts owed by NTV's parent company to take control of the country's last major independent television network at a shareholders' meeting, replacing its owner and top editors with its own…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Silence · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Sustained
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
Malaysia pressures domestic media and monitors foreign correspondents after arresting former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim
After Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government arrested former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998, party-linked newspapers pressured staff to follow the official line, police visited journalists who interviewed his w…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Mahathir Mohamad · Unknown
Peru strips television station owner Baruch Ivcher of his citizenship after critical reporting
In July 1997, the government of President Alberto Fujimori stripped Baruch Ivcher, the Israeli-born owner of Peru's Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2 television station, of his Peruvian citizenship, making him ineligible under Peruvian law to own…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Alberto Fujimori · Sustained
Belarus jails journalist Pavel Sheremet over his reporting for Russian television station ORT
In 1997, Belarusian authorities under President Alexander Lukashenko jailed journalist Pavel Sheremet for three months in connection with his reporting for the Russian television station ORT. The Committee to Protect Journalists said the s…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Alexander Lukashenko · Sustained
Nigeria's military government convicts journalists by special tribunal over coup-plot reporting
A special military tribunal convicted four Nigerian journalists as accessories to a supposed 1995 coup plot after they reported on it, sentencing them to lengthy prison terms with no right of appeal, under the military government of Genera…
Detention and violence · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Sani Abacha · Reversed
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 federal court bars CNN from broadcasting recordings of Manuel Noriega's calls with his lawyers
In November 1990, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ordered Cable News Network to stop broadcasting tape recordings of jailed former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega's telephone conversations with his de…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government George H. W. Bush · Upheld by a court
United States Supreme Court strikes down Florida law barring a reporter from discussing his own grand jury testimony
In 1990, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a Florida law that threatened newspaper reporter Michael Smith with criminal prosecution for discussing his own testimony before a state grand jury investigating local officials.…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Silence · Head of government Bob Martinez · Reversed
United States: Pentagon press pool kept from the opening hours of the Panama invasion, December 1989
When United States forces invaded Panama on December 20, 1989, the Pentagon kept its national media pool of reporters away from the opening hours of the fighting. President George H.W. Bush later told newspaper editors the arrangement had…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government George H. W. Bush · Ongoing
China expels foreign journalists and restricts coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests
After declaring martial law in Beijing on May 20, 1989, China's government imposed rigid restrictions on coverage of pro-democracy protests and, following the military's June 3-4 clearing of Tiananmen Square, expelled Associated Press corr…
Expulsion and visa denial · Stage Punish · Head of government Li Peng · Sustained
United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd directed British broadcasters in October 1988 not to air the voices of representatives of Sinn Féin, a party linked to the Irish Republican Army, and other groups linked to violence in Northern Ireland. Broadcas…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Margaret Thatcher · Reversed
Burma's new military government tightens pre-publication press controls after seizing power
After crushing the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, Burma's new military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, tightened an existing pre-publication press controls board and raised penalties for unauthorized publishing to se…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Saw Maung · Ongoing
Malaysia: Printing Presses and Publications Act amended to bar court review of publishing permits, 1987
Malaysia's government amended the Printing Presses and Publications Act in 1987 to expand its power to ban or restrict publications and to bar any court challenge to the suspension or revocation of a publishing permit. The change came the…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Mahathir Mohamad · Sustained
Soviet Union: arrest and seven-week detention of American correspondent Nicholas Daniloff in Moscow, 1986
Soviet authorities arrested Nicholas Daniloff, the Moscow correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, on August 30, 1986, days after the United States arrested a Soviet United Nations employee on espionage charges. Daniloff was held for tw…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Mikhail Gorbachev · Reversed
South Africa bans television and photographic coverage of unrest under a state of emergency
Under a state of emergency State President P. W. Botha had declared in July 1985, the government banned television, radio and photographic coverage of unrest in South Africa's Black townships on November 2, 1985, requiring print journalist…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government P. W. Botha · Reversed
United States: Espionage Act conviction of Samuel Loring Morison for leaking satellite photographs to Jane's Defence Weekly, 1985 to 1988
Naval intelligence analyst Samuel Loring Morison was convicted under the Espionage Act after he sent classified satellite photographs to a British defense publication in 1984. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit uphel…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Ronald Reagan · Upheld by a court
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
Poland's martial law government shuts nearly all newspapers and interns journalists overnight
On December 13, 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland, cutting phone and telex lines, suspending nearly all newspapers, and interning thousands of people, most Solidarity trade union journalists among them, withi…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Wojciech Jaruzelski · 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
South Korea's martial-law government purges journalists who resisted press controls
Under General Chun Doo-hwan's martial-law government, South Korean authorities ordered newsrooms in 1980 to purge journalists who had resisted press controls or joined a May sit-in strike for press freedom, and closed 172 periodicals, dism…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Chun Doo-hwan · Reversed
South Africa bans The World and Weekend World newspapers and detains editor Percy Qoboza
On October 19, 1977, a day South Africans came to call Black Wednesday, the government banned the newspapers The World and Weekend World and had the Special Branch police arrest editor Percy Qoboza and deputy editor Aggrey Klaaste. Qoboza…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Balthazar Johannes Vorster · Sustained
Argentina's military junta threatens journalists with prison for reporting on its opponents
Hours after seizing power on March 24, 1976, Argentina's military junta, led by General Jorge Videla, issued Communiqué No. 19, threatening up to 10 years in prison for reporting favorable to groups it called subversive. Hundreds of journa…
Detention and violence · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Jorge Rafael Videla · Reversed
United States judge bars the press from reporting a murder suspect's confession before trial
On October 27, 1975, Nebraska District Judge Hugh Stuart ordered news organizations covering a mass murder near Sutherland, Nebraska, not to report a suspect's confession or other evidence before jury selection. The Supreme Court of the Un…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government J. James Exon · Reversed
India imposes pre-press controls on every newspaper during the 1975 Emergency
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency on June 25, 1975, and the next day her government imposed pre-press controls on every Indian newspaper, requiring official clearance before publication and later forcibly merging t…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Indira Gandhi · Reversed
Chile's military government shuts opposition radio stations and newspapers after the 1973 coup
On the day of the September 11, 1973 military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende, Chile's armed forces bombed and shut down radio stations that opposed the takeover, arrested journalists and closed newspapers aligned with the o…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Augusto Pinochet · Sustained
United Kingdom court bars The Sunday Times from publishing an article on thalidomide
On November 17, 1972, the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division, part of England's High Court, granted the Attorney General's request for an injunction stopping The Sunday Times from publishing an article about the drug thalidomid…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Edward Heath · Reversed
Philippines President Marcos closes every major news outlet under martial law
President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, and the next day ordered the military to take over nearly every newspaper, radio and television station in the Philippines, jailing prominent publishers and editors and…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Ferdinand Marcos · 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 police search a student newspaper's offices for photographs of a protest
On April 12, 1971, Palo Alto police searched the newsroom of The Stanford Daily, a student newspaper, for photographs of a clash between demonstrators and police at Stanford University Hospital, though no member of the paper's staff was su…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Ronald Reagan · Upheld by a court
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
Brazil's military government decrees the Fifth Institutional Act and moves to control the press
On the night of December 13, 1968, Brazil's military government, led by President Artur da Costa e Silva, decreed the Fifth Institutional Act, suspending constitutional guarantees and recessing the national Congress. A United States Embass…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Artur da Costa e Silva · Unknown
Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia is followed by the return of government press controls
Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20-21, 1968 to end the Prague Spring, a period of liberalization under Alexander Dubček that had included the lifting of press controls. In the invasion's aftermath, the new le…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Alexander Dubček · Reversed
West Germany: police raid Der Spiegel's offices and arrest its editors over a defense article
On October 26, 1962, West German police raided the offices of the news magazine Der Spiegel and arrested its publisher, Rudolf Augstein, after it reported that the armed forces were only "conditionally prepared" for a nuclear strike. Deput…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Konrad Adenauer · Unknown
United States: Texas judge allows televised pretrial hearing in the Billie Sol Estes case; Supreme Court later limits cameras in criminal courtrooms
A Texas state judge in Tyler allowed live television and photography at pretrial hearings and part of the criminal trial of financier Billie Sol Estes, over defense objections. On June 7, 1965, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Price Daniel · Reversed
Egypt's Nasser government nationalizes every newspaper and magazine in the country
President Gamal Abdel Nasser's government issued a decree on May 24, 1960 placing every newspaper and magazine in Egypt under state ownership and management, with the government appointing editors and deciding content, ending private contr…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Silence · Head of government Gamal Abdel Nasser · Ongoing
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
Cuba: Prime Minister Fidel Castro publicly criticizes Havana newspapers that questioned his government, September 1959
In a September 28, 1959 television appearance, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro criticized Havana newspapers, including Diario de la Marina, that had questioned his government's actions, along with the Inter American Press Association's d…
Official labels · Stage Pressure · Head of government Fidel Castro · Sustained
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
United States: Tallahatchie County, Mississippi sheriff segregates Black reporters at the Emmett Till murder trial, September 1955
When the murder trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam opened in Sumner, Mississippi, on September 19, 1955, Tallahatchie County Sheriff Clarence Strider assigned Black reporters covering the trial, along with Michigan congressman Charles Digg…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Hugh L. White · Sustained
United States: Senator Joseph McCarthy's subcommittee questions New York Post editor James Wechsler, 1953
In 1953, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a Senate panel led by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, questioned New York Post editor James Wechsler about his membership in the Young Communist League in the 1930s. McCar…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Dwight D. Eisenhower · Unknown
Argentina: President Juan Perón's government hands the expropriated newspaper La Prensa to the CGT labor federation, October 1951
La Prensa, one of Argentina's leading newspapers and a longtime critic of President Juan Perón's government, was expropriated by the state earlier in 1951. In October 1951, the government formally handed the paper to the Confederación Gene…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Silence · Head of government Juan Perón · Sustained
South Africa's Suppression of Communism Act lets the government ban publications and restrict individuals
Under Prime Minister Daniel François Malan, South Africa's parliament approved the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950, defining communism broadly enough to cover most opposition to apartheid. It let the government ban organizations and p…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government Daniel François Malan · Reversed
Israel retains a British-era law giving the military the power to review and restrict the press
When Israel declared independence in 1948 under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, it retained a British Mandate-era Press Ordinance giving the military the power to review and restrict publications on security grounds, later formalized thro…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government David Ben-Gurion · Ongoing
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