Ladder
Ladder: official labels
A government officially brands a news outlet or a journalist as a source of disinformation or "fake news", or requires it to register as an agent of another country. Such labels often carry reporting duties and restrictions, and can cost the outlet its audience and advertisers.
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
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2Pressure
Using state power short of prosecution to change coverage: regulatory threats, licence reviews, funding cuts, lawsuits by officials, official "fake news" or "foreign agent" labels, advertising pressure, tax audits.
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr reopened complaints alleging CBS and NBC distorted the news, demanding CBS turn over the full tape and transcript of a 60 Minutes interview and later accusing NBC's parent Comcast of misleading coverage of an immigration case.
Ongoing · 1 source · Full entry
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 decision to examine press freedom in Cuba.
Sustained 11 May 1960 · 2 sources · Full entry
Vietnam's Decree 72 took effect in September 2013, barring bloggers and social media users from linking to or reposting news from press organizations or foreign government websites, restricting them to sharing personal information only.
Note: Vietnam's decree barred bloggers from sharing news articles at all, restricting them to personal content on pain of prosecution; no United States rule confines an outlet or blogger to personal content.
Sustained 1 September 2013 · 3 sources · Full entry
Russia's parliament passed laws letting courts jail and fine people, including journalists, for posting information the government alone judges to be false, or for statements found to disrespect officials or state symbols online.
Note: Russia's parliament created fines and jail terms for online posts that authorities alone judge false or disrespectful of officials; no enacted United States law imposes jail time for calling an official statement false.
Sustained 7 March 2019 · 3 sources · Full entry
Under a 2018 law that treats any social media account with more than 5,000 followers as a media outlet, Egypt's media regulator fined news site al-Mashhad and ordered internet providers to block it for spreading what it called false news.
Note: Egyptian law classifies any social media account over five thousand followers as a media outlet subject to state fines and blocking, and Egypt used it to fine and block a news site for weeks; no United States "fake news" designation can fine or block an outlet.
Unknown 7 May 2019 · 2 sources · Full entry
Russia's Justice Ministry labeled the independent news site Meduza and outlet PASMI "foreign agents," a status requiring constant public disclosure, quarterly reports and audits, and carrying up to two years in prison for noncompliance, which Meduza said would destroy its advertising business.
Note: Russia's foreign agent label forced an outlet to mark every article, file quarterly reports and risk two years in prison for lapses, by its own editor's account destroying its advertising business; no United States "fake news" designation carries a legal reporting duty or prison exposure.
Sustained 23 April 2021 · 2 sources · Full entry
A Minsk court declared all output from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle "extremist," alongside a local newspaper and a Russian blogger's videos, making it a crime to produce, store or share the labeled material, as a former correspondent was jailed the same week.
Note: Belarus banned a foreign broadcaster's entire output as extremist material, making it a crime to read or share it, and jailed a former correspondent the same week; no United States "fake news" label makes sharing an outlet's work a crime.
Sustained 9 March 2022 · 2 sources · Full entry
On December 20, 2023, the president of Hungary, Katalin Novák, promulgated the National Sovereignty Protection Act, passed by the National Assembly, Hungary's parliament, during the government of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
Reversed 30 June 2026 · 3 sources · Full entry
India's 2023 amendment to its Information Technology Rules empowered a government-run Fact Check Unit to label online content about the central government 'fake' or 'false' and require its removal; comedian Kunal Kamra and media groups challenged it, and the Bombay High Court struck the rule down a…
Reversed 20 September 2024 · 2 sources · Full entry
Georgia's parliament passed a law requiring media and civil-society groups that receive 20 percent or more of their funding from abroad to register as organizations "serving the interests of a foreign power," over mass street protests and international criticism that the label would be used to marg…
Sustained · 1 source · Full entry
On August 4, 2026, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed a law, adopted unanimously by the Russian parliament on July 24, 2026, that allows the authorities to freeze bank accounts, block property and vehicle sales and deny consular services such as passport renewal to Russians in exile wh…
Sustained 4 August 2026 · 3 sources · Full entry
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.
Pakistan's parliament amended the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act to create a new Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority with power to block online content and a Social Media Protection Tribunal, and made spreading information deemed 'fake or false' punishable by up to three years in…
Sustained · 2 sources · Full entry
5Eliminate
Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.
A Nicaraguan appeals court stripped 94 government opponents, including exiled journalists Carlos Fernando Chamorro and Alvaro Navarro, of their citizenship, days after President Daniel Ortega released 222 political prisoners to the United States and immediately declared them stateless too.
Sustained · 2 sources · Full entry
All ladders · Official labels: by country and year · The United States chapter