The record
Incidents: access bans
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
United States: White House hard-pass deactivations for CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters, September 2026
On September 18, 2026, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Truth Social, a social media platform, and in the Oval Office that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be banned from the White House, the president's office…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Hungary: a ruling-party mayor forcibly removes Telex reporters from a campaign event
A mayor from Hungary's ruling Fidesz party physically removed two Telex journalists from a campaign forum in a community center, covering their camera lens and pushing them out after they declined to leave what he called a closed event.
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Viktor Orban · Ongoing
Israel: ban on independent entry of foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip, 2023 to 2026
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, the government of Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean coast between Israel and Egypt, independently; foreign corres…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Sustained
White House closes 'Upper Press' section of West Wing to reporters
The White House began requiring reporters to make appointments before entering the 'Upper Press' area of the West Wing, home to the press secretary's and senior press aides' offices, citing a need to protect sensitive material after accusi…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
Tanzania shuts down internet access on election day amid unrest
Tanzania's government restricted internet and social-media access on October 29, 2025, as citizens voted in a general election marked by protests, cutting national internet traffic by nearly 90 percent and leaving both local and foreign jo…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Samia Suluhu Hassan · Unknown
United States: News organizations turn in their Pentagon press credentials, October 2025
Beginning on October 15, 2025, reporters from at least 30 news organizations vacated the press workspace at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, rather than sign the department's new credential pledge,…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: Department of Defense press credential rules requiring approval before release of information, September 2025
On September 19, 2025, the United States Department of Defense, the federal department that provides the country's military forces, issued new credential rules for reporters at the Pentagon, its headquarters building, under the Secretary o…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
White House ends wire services' guaranteed seat in the press pool
The White House ended the decades-old practice of guaranteeing wire services Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg a daily seat in the small press pool that covers the president, making them compete instead for a single rotating print sl…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: White House takes over selection of the presidential press pool, February 2025
On February 25, 2025, the White House announced that it would decide which journalists join the press pool, the small rotating group of reporters who cover the president of the United States in spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: White House exclusion of the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, February 2025
On February 11, 2025, the White House, the office of the president of the United States, began barring journalists from the Associated Press (AP), a United States news agency, from the Oval Office and Air Force One, the aircraft that carri…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Border czar Tom Homan says ICE media ride-alongs may end over leaks
White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration might stop letting journalists ride along on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations after an Aurora, Colorado raid captured far fewer people than expected, which officials a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
United States (Louisiana): Federal court order blocking enforcement of the police buffer zone law, January 2025
On January 31, 2025, Judge John W. deGravelles of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, a federal trial court, blocked enforcement of the state's 25-foot (7.6-metre) police buffer zone law with a preliminar…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Jeff Landry · Ongoing
United States (Florida): Halo Law buffer zone around first responders, January 2025
On January 1, 2025, the "Halo Law" took effect in Florida, a state in the south-eastern United States. It creates a 25-foot (7.6-metre) buffer zone around first responders, such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics, while they a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Ron DeSantis · Sustained
United States (Louisiana): 25-foot buffer zone law around police officers, May 2024
On May 24, 2024, the governor of Louisiana, a state in the southern United States, Jeff Landry, signed a law that makes it a crime to stay within 25 feet (about 7.6 metres) of a working law enforcement officer after the officer has told a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Jeff Landry · Ongoing
Federal court strikes down Arizona's law banning recording police within 8 feet
Arizona's 2022 law making it a crime to record police within eight feet after a warning was struck down by a federal judge in July 2023, who found it chilled a substantial amount of activity protected by the First Amendment and was not nec…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Doug Ducey · Reversed
Russia: entry bans, visa restrictions and bureau closures for foreign correspondents
Over several months in 2022, Russian authorities closed a Canadian broadcaster's Moscow bureau, barred dozens of named British and Australian journalists from entering the country, and suspended simplified visa rules for European journalis…
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Sustained
Court orders RCMP to stop restricting press access at Fairy Creek logging blockades
A British Columbia court found the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had failed to justify wide exclusion zones that kept journalists away from its enforcement of a logging injunction at the Fairy Creek old-growth blockades, and ordered police…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government John Horgan · Reversed
Belarus: accreditation withdrawn from 17 journalists working for foreign outlets
Belarus's government revoked the accreditation of at least 17 journalists working for foreign outlets, including the BBC, Reuters, the Associated Press, Radio Liberty, AFP and Deutsche Welle, as they covered protests after a disputed presi…
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Alexander Lukashenko · Sustained
Federal officers restrict press access to Portland protests; judge orders them to stop
After federal officers deployed to Portland used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on journalists and legal observers covering protests, the American Civil Liberties Union sued, and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction b…
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Minnesota State Patrol arrests CNN crew live on air in Minneapolis
Minnesota State Patrol troopers arrested CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew on live television while they covered protests after the police killing of George Floyd. Officers gave no reason before handcuffing the three men; Governo…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Tim Walz · Reversed
China: three Wall Street Journal correspondents expelled over an opinion headline
China's foreign ministry expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents and revoked their press credentials after an opinion column, unrelated to their own reporting, used a headline the ministry called offensive.
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Xi Jinping · Sustained
White House revokes CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's press credential after a news conference exchange with President Trump
After CNN's Jim Acosta questioned President Trump at a news conference and briefly kept hold of a microphone as an intern reached for it, the White House suspended his hard pass, the standing credential letting reporters enter the grounds;…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
United States: White House suspension of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's hard pass, November 2018
On November 7, 2018, the White House suspended the hard pass of CNN's White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, after what Gulf News called a "heated confrontation" between Acosta and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, at a new…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Philippines: a Rappler reporter is barred from the presidential palace
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Rappler reporter Pia Ranada and the outlet's CEO barred from Malacanang Palace, the seat of the Philippine presidency, after the government revoked Rappler's operating license.
Access bans · Stage Pressure · Head of government Rodrigo Duterte · Unknown
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
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
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
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 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
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