The record

Incidents: prior restraint

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

34 incidents match this view.

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Date	Incident	Country	Tactic	Head of government	Outcome
19 September 2025	United States: Department of Defense press credential rules requiring approval before release of information, September 2025	United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)	Credential control	Donald Trump	Ongoing (9 April 2026)
March 2024	Bombay High Court strikes down India's government 'fact check unit' rule	India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180)	Official labels	Narendra Modi	Reversed (20 September 2024)
22 February 2023	Türkiye: the broadcast regulator fines and suspends channels for earthquake coverage	Türkiye (RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180)	Prior restraint	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Sustained (22 February 2023)
14 February 2023	Indian tax authorities search BBC offices weeks after Modi documentary ban	India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180)	Surveillance and subpoenas	Narendra Modi	Unknown
12 September 2020	Political appointees alter CDC coronavirus guidance before public release	United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)	Prior restraint	Donald Trump	Unknown
October 2018	Egypt: a license requirement leaves an independent news site unable to operate legally for years	Egypt (RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180)	Prior restraint	Abdel Fattah el-Sisi	Ongoing (26 October 2020)
June 2010	Israel: a court bars any mention of the 'Prisoner X' case	Israel (RSF 2026 rank: 116th of 180)	Prior restraint	Benjamin Netanyahu	Unknown (1 June 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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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
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)
16 April 1944	Australia's wartime government seizes a Sydney newspaper edition under press controls rules	Australia (RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180)	Prior restraint	John Curtin	Reversed (18 April 1944)
19 December 1941	United States creates an Office of Censorship and a wartime code for the press	United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)	Prior restraint	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Sustained (28 September 1945)
8 May 1941	Greece: collaborationist government creates a Directorate-General for Press and Radio to review films and publications before release	Greece (RSF rank: not recorded)	Prior restraint	Georgios Tsolakoglou	Sustained
3 September 1939	Canada: War Measures Act regulations authorize review of hundreds of newspapers and ban political organizations	Canada (RSF 2026 rank: 20th of 180)	Prior restraint	William Lyon Mackenzie King	Sustained (31 December 1945)
1939	Brazil's Vargas government creates a state messaging department with broad press powers	Brazil (RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180)	Licensing and closure of outlets	Getúlio Vargas	Reversed (1 January 1945)
April 1938	Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime Press Law	Spain (RSF 2026 rank: 29th of 180)	Credential control	Francisco Franco	Reversed (1 April 1977)
28 March 1938	United States: Supreme Court strikes down a Georgia city's permit requirement for distributing literature, 1938	United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)	Prior restraint	Eurith D. Rivers	Reversed (28 March 1938)
July 1937	Japan: government requires clearance to publish war news under the Newspaper Law, 1937	Japan (RSF rank: not recorded)	Prior restraint	Fumimaro Konoe	Sustained
1933	Portugal's Salazar government formally establishes press controls under a new constitution	Portugal (RSF 2026 rank: 10th of 180)	Prior restraint	António de Oliveira Salazar	Reversed (25 April 1974)
1927	Minnesota closes The Saturday Press in 1927; the Supreme Court strikes down the law in 1931	United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)	Prior restraint	Theodore Christianson	Reversed (1 June 1931)
1922	Glavlit created: Soviet censorship office, 1922	Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180)	Prior restraint	Vladimir Lenin	Ongoing (1 January 1989)
27 August 1914	Britain's Official Press Bureau controls newspaper coverage of the First World War	United Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180)	Prior restraint	Herbert Henry Asquith	Sustained (12 November 1914)

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