Ladder
Ladder: detention and violence, in Europe
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.
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3Punish
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.
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.
Unknown · 4 sources · Full entry
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.
Reversed 29 September 1986 · 6 sources · Full entry
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.
Sustained · 2 sources · Full entry
British authorities detained David Miranda, partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, for nine hours at Heathrow Airport under anti-terrorism powers, and separately had Guardian staff destroy hard drives holding files leaked by Edward Snowden rather than hand them to a court.
Upheld by a court 19 January 2016 · 3 sources · Full entry
The Committee to Protect Journalists documented at least 28 Serbian journalists reporting being struck, detained, sprayed with chemical irritants or having their equipment destroyed by police between June and September 2025 while covering nationwide anti-government protests; the interior ministry d…
Ongoing · 1 source · Full entry
4Silence
Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.
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, within days.
Reversed 22 July 1983 · 2 sources · Full entry
Belarusian authorities blocked access to Tut.by, the country's most-read independent news site, searched its offices in three cities and arrested at least eleven staff, including its editor-in-chief, citing alleged media-law violations after the site had already lost its official media status.
Sustained · 3 sources · Full entry
5Eliminate
Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.
Anna Politkovskaya, a Novaya Gazeta journalist known for reporting critical of Russia's conduct of the war in Chechnya, was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building; a Moscow court later convicted a former police officer of organizing surveillance for her killers.
Note: Who ordered the killing was never conclusively established in court.
Upheld by a court 9 June 2014 · 3 sources · Full entry
Belarus sentenced Polish-Belarusian correspondent Andrzej Poczobut to eight years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions, after holding him since March 2021.
Note: Belarus sentenced a correspondent to eight years for reporting on its Polish minority and held him nearly five years before an exchange; comparable United States detentions in the record ended in hours, not years.
Reversed 28 April 2026 · 3 sources · Full entry
Russia arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in March 2023 on an espionage charge his employer called fabricated, held him for about 15 months before a closed trial, and sentenced him to 16 years before releasing him in a prisoner exchange.
Note: Russia held a Wall Street Journal reporter for over a year on an espionage charge his employer called fabricated, then sentenced him to sixteen years; United States detentions of journalists in the record have not led to years-long imprisonment on state charges.
Reversed 1 August 2024 · 3 sources · Full entry
All ladders · Detention and violence: by country and year · The United States chapter