Ladder: insult and defamation laws, in North America

Laws that make it a crime, not only a civil wrong, to damage a person's reputation, to insult a head of state or a monarch (known as lèse-majesté), or to publish information that a government declares false, including laws against "fake news". Convictions can bring fines or prison.

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.

Focal caseUSUnited StatesRSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180

4 March 1909Theodore Roosevelt

President Theodore Roosevelt sought federal criminal libel indictments against the publishers of the New York World and the Indianapolis News after they reported that he and other officials had profited from the United States' purchase of the Panama Canal.

Reversed 3 January 1911 · 3 sources · Full entry

Focal caseUSUnited StatesRSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180

1960John Patterson

L. B. Sullivan, an elected Montgomery, Alabama city commissioner who supervised the police department, sued The New York Times for libel over a 1960 civil rights advertisement and won a $500,000 jury verdict.

Reversed 9 March 1964 · 2 sources · Full entry

All ladders · Insult and defamation laws: by country and year · The United States chapter