# Ladder: detention and violence, in North America

Arrest, detention, prosecution, imprisonment, physical harm or killing of journalists, where police, soldiers, officials or others acting for a government carried out, ordered or authorised the act. Harm by private people is recorded only when a government actor was involved.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

Narrow with ?stage= (restrict, pressure, punish, silence, eliminate), ?continent=, ?from= and ?to= (year or date).

## Restrict

Limiting access or credentials for particular reporters or outlets: bans from briefings or buildings, pool changes, credential revocations, accreditation refusals.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 17 January 1991 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [George H. W. Bush](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/george-hw-bush) | 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. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1991-gulf-war-us-military-press-pools) | Sustained (28 February 1991) | 2 |
| 20 July 2021 | [Canada](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ca) ([RSF 2026 rank: 20th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [John Horgan](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/john-horgan) | 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 to keep the media's role in a free society in mind when dec… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-rcmp-restricts-press-fairy-creek-court-order) | Reversed (20 July 2021) | 1 |

## Punish

Legal or physical action against individual journalists or sources: subpoenas and record seizures, prosecutions, arrests, detention, expulsions, visa denials, assault where a government actor is involved.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1917 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Woodrow Wilson](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/woodrow-wilson) | Emma Goldman, editor of the anarchist magazine Mother Earth, was convicted with fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman of conspiring against the newly enacted Selective Draft Law and received the maximum two year sentence and a ten thousand dollar fine. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-mother-earth-editor-emma-goldman-convicted-magazine-barred-from-mail) | Upheld by a court (14 January 1918) | 2 |
| 26 June 1918 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Woodrow Wilson](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/woodrow-wilson) | Jacob Frohwerk, an associate editor of the German language newspaper the Missouri Staats-Zeitung, was tried and convicted in June 1918 under the Espionage Act of 1917 for publishing articles opposing American participation in the First World War, and was sentenced to ten years in prison on each of… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1918-us-espionage-act-conviction-of-editor-frohwerk) | Upheld by a court (10 March 1919) | 2 |
| 8 June 1925 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Alfred E. Smith](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/al-smith) | The United States Supreme Court voted seven to two on June 8, 1925 to uphold the conviction of socialist publisher Benjamin Gitlow, who had been tried and sentenced to prison under New York's 1902 Criminal Anarchy Law for distributing 16,000 copies of the Left Wing Manifesto. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1925-us-supreme-court-upholds-gitlow-anarchy-conviction) | Upheld by a court (8 June 1925) | 2 |
| 5 July 2010 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Barack Obama](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/barack-obama) | The U.S. Army charged intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning under the Espionage Act, a 1917 law against disclosing defense information, after she gave WikiLeaks, a website that publishes leaked documents, a large archive of military and diplomatic files that news organizations later published. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2010-us-chelsea-manning-espionage-act-wikileaks) | Reversed (17 January 2017) | 1 |
| 29 May 2020 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Tim Walz](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/tim-walz) | 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. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-minnesota-state-patrol-arrests-cnn-crew-minneapolis) | Reversed (29 May 2020) | 2 |
| 29 May 2020 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Jacob Frey](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/jacob-frey) | Freelance photojournalist Linda Tirado was struck in the face by a less-lethal round fired by Minneapolis police while covering protests over George Floyd's killing, permanently blinding her in one eye; the city settled her lawsuit for $600,000 in 2022 while continuing to deny an officer had fired… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-minneapolis-police-blind-photojournalist-linda-tirado) | Sustained (26 May 2022) | 2 |
| 23 July 2020 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Donald Trump](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/donald-trump) | 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 barring officers from dispersing, arresting or using force ag… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-federal-officers-target-journalists-portland-injunction) | Reversed (23 July 2020) | 3 |
| 6 November 2021 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Joe Biden](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/joe-biden) | FBI agents raided Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe's New York home and seized his phones as part of an investigation into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Biden's daughter, which the group had reported on; O'Keefe was never charged. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-fbi-raids-project-veritas-founder-okeefe) | Unknown | 1 |
| 11 August 2023 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Laura Kelly](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/laura-kelly) | Police in Marion, Kansas, led by Chief Gideon Cody, raided the Marion County Record's newsroom and publisher Eric Meyer's home, seizing computers, phones and files, on a warrant tied to an identity-theft investigation. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-marion-county-record-raid-kansas) | Reversed (5 August 2024) | 3 |
| 9 June 2025 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Karen Bass](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/karen-bass) | A law enforcement officer shot Nine News Australia correspondent Lauren Tomasi with a rubber bullet while she was reporting live from a Los Angeles protest against federal immigration raids, prompting Australia's prime minister to call the incident unacceptable and raise it with the U.S. government. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-australian-journalist-shot-rubber-bullet-los-angeles) | Unknown | 1 |

## Silence

Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 3 September 1939 | [Canada](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ca) ([RSF 2026 rank: 20th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [William Lyon Mackenzie King](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/william-lyon-mackenzie-king) | Canada invoked the War Measures Act at the outset of the Second World War and used it to bring in the Defence of Canada Regulations, which gave the government power to review and restrict hundreds of newspapers and periodicals and to ban dozens of organizations, including the Communist Party of Can… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1939-canada-defence-of-canada-regulations-censorship) | Sustained (31 December 1945) | 2 |

## Eliminate

Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1980 | [Haiti](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ht) ([RSF 2026 rank: 107th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Jean-Claude Duvalier](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/jean-claude-duvalier) | 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 after security forces raided the station on November 28, 198… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1981-haiti-duvalier-radio-haiti-inter-exile) | Reversed (1 February 1986) | 3 |
| 14 June 2023 | [Guatemala](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/gt) ([RSF 2026 rank: 128th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Alejandro Giammattei](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/alejandro-giammattei) | A Guatemalan court convicted El Periodico founder Jose Ruben Zamora of money laundering and sentenced him to six years in prison, months after his newspaper, known for investigating government corruption, was forced to close; press-freedom groups said the case was connected to his investigative rep… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-guatemala-convicts-zamora-money-laundering) | Ongoing | 2 |

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