{ "title": "Ladder: expulsion and visa denial, in North America", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/expulsion_and_visa_denial?continent=north-america", "filters": { "continent": "north-america" }, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "tactic": { "slug": "expulsion_and_visa_denial", "name": "Expulsion and visa denial", "definition": "A government expels correspondents who report from its territory for news organisations based in other countries, refuses them visas or accreditation, or declines to renew their permission to stay. The effect is less independent reporting from inside the country.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/expulsion_and_visa_denial" }, "focal_case": "US", "count": 4, "stages": [ { "stage": "punish", "name": "Punish", "definition": "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.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1917-us-mother-earth-editor-emma-goldman-convicted-magazine-barred-from-mail", "title": "United States convicts Mother Earth editor Emma Goldman of draft conspiracy and bars her magazine from the mail", "occurred_on": "1917-01-01", "occurred_on_precision": "year", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "woodrow-wilson", "leader_name": "Woodrow Wilson", "what_was_done": "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.", "outcome": "upheld", "outcome_on": "1918-01-14", "outcome_note": "Goldman's conviction stood, and she was deported from the United States in 1919.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "expulsion_and_visa_denial", "shutdowns_and_blocking" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-mother-earth-editor-emma-goldman-convicted-magazine-barred-from-mail" }, { "slug": "2018-nicaragua-expels-goette-luciak", "title": "Nicaragua: freelance correspondent detained and deported after online campaign", "occurred_on": "2018-09-16", "occurred_on_precision": "month", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": false, "country": "NI", "country_name": "Nicaragua", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 168, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 168th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "daniel-ortega", "leader_name": "Daniel Ortega", "what_was_done": "A coordinated online campaign accused freelance correspondent Carl David Goette-Luciak of being a foreign agent and circulated his home address, after which he was detained and deported from Nicaragua in September 2018.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2018-09-30", "outcome_note": "The deportation was not reported as reversed; the sources reviewed record at least 50 Nicaraguan journalists in exile by mid-2019.", "ladder_note": "A freelance correspondent's home address was circulated online in a coordinated campaign, then he was detained and deported from Nicaragua; no comparable United States action in the record has removed a journalist from the country.", "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "expulsion_and_visa_denial", "tactics": [ "expulsion_and_visa_denial" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-nicaragua-expels-goette-luciak" } ] }, { "stage": "eliminate", "name": "Eliminate", "definition": "Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1981-haiti-duvalier-radio-haiti-inter-exile", "title": "Haiti's Duvalier government arrests and deports Radio Haiti-Inter staff, driving its director into exile", "occurred_on": "1980-11-28", "occurred_on_precision": "year", "stage": "eliminate", "focal_case": false, "country": "HT", "country_name": "Haiti", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 107, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 107th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "jean-claude-duvalier", "leader_name": "Jean-Claude Duvalier", "what_was_done": "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…", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1986-02-01", "outcome_note": "Jean Dominique returned to Haiti and to Radio Haiti-Inter in February 1986 after the fall of President-for-life Jean-Claude Duvalier's government.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "expulsion_and_visa_denial", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "expulsion_and_visa_denial" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1981-haiti-duvalier-radio-haiti-inter-exile" }, { "slug": "2023-nicaragua-strips-journalists-citizenship", "title": "Nicaragua strips 94 political opponents, including journalists, of citizenship", "occurred_on": "2023-02-15", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "eliminate", "focal_case": false, "country": "NI", "country_name": "Nicaragua", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 168, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 168th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "daniel-ortega", "leader_name": "Daniel Ortega", "what_was_done": "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.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "Citizenship was not restored to those named; Ortega's government continued comparable actions against critics afterward.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "expulsion_and_visa_denial", "tactics": [ "disinformation_labeling", "expulsion_and_visa_denial" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-nicaragua-strips-journalists-citizenship" } ] } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/expulsion_and_visa_denial?continent=north-america&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/expulsion_and_visa_denial.json?continent=north-america", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/expulsion_and_visa_denial.md?continent=north-america" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }