Ladder: licensing and closure of outlets
A government requires newspapers, broadcasters or news websites to register or to hold a licence, and uses that power to refuse, suspend or cancel it, or to close the outlet. Broadcast licences, which governments issue because radio and television frequencies are limited, are a common lever.
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
Pressure
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.
| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 17, 2025 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Donald Trump | On September 17, 2025, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the United States regulator of broadcasting, Brendan Carr, said broadcasters could "do this the easy way or the hard way" over remarks by the television host Jimmy Kimmel, and warned of "additional work for the FCC… Full entry | Reversed (September 23, 2025) | 2 |
| March 15, 2002 | Zimbabwe (RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180) | Robert Mugabe | Zimbabwe's parliament passed the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), requiring every journalist and media company to obtain a government license renewed every two years, weeks before a closely contested 2002 presidential election. Full entry | Unknown | 1 |
| December 21, 2010 | Hungary (RSF 2026 rank: 74th of 180) | Viktor Orban | Hungary's parliament, controlled by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, passed a media law creating a government-appointed National Media and Infocommunications Authority empowered to fine any outlet, print, broadcast or online, for coverage it deemed unbalanced or offensive to public moral… Full entry | Sustained (January 1, 2011) | 1 |
| March 16, 2018 | Tanzania (RSF 2026 rank: 117th of 180) | John Magufuli | Tanzania's government, under President John Magufuli, issued regulations requiring anyone running a blog or website with user content to register with the telecoms regulator and pay an annual fee reported at roughly $930, with vaguely worded content bans. Full entry | Unknown (April 12, 2018) | 2 |
| June 20, 2024 | Slovakia (RSF 2026 rank: 37th of 180) | Robert Fico | Slovakia's parliament, controlled by Prime Minister Robert Fico's coalition, dissolved public broadcaster RTVS and replaced it with a new entity, STVR, whose director is now chosen through a process giving parliament and the culture ministry more direct control, prompting protests and criticism fro… Full entry | Sustained (July 1, 2024) | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 29, 2025 | Pakistan (RSF 2026 rank: 153rd of 180) | Shehbaz Sharif | 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… Full entry | Sustained | 2 |
| September 3, 2025 | Ethiopia (RSF 2026 rank: 148th of 180) | Abiy Ahmed | Ethiopian authorities arrested at least six journalists between August and September 2025, including three from Sheger FM after the Ethiopian Media Authority ordered the station to delete a broadcast it accused of bias and inciting violence, ahead of national elections scheduled for 2026. Full entry | Ongoing (September 22, 2025) | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Vladimir Lenin | In 1922, under Vladimir Lenin's government, Soviet Russia created Glavlit, a single agency with final authority to review newspapers, books, plays and even posters before they could be printed or performed. Full entry | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) | 2 |
| October 4, 1933 | Germany (RSF 2026 rank: 14th of 180) | Adolf Hitler | Nine months after Adolf Hitler became chancellor, Germany's Schriftleitergesetz, or Editors Law, required journalists to register with a new state-controlled Reich Press Chamber and barred non-Aryans from the profession, while directing editors to omit anything judged harmful to the Reich's standin… Full entry | Reversed (May 8, 1945) | 2 |
| 1939 | Brazil (RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180) | Getúlio Vargas | President Getúlio Vargas created the Department of Press and state messaging in 1939 during Brazil's Estado Novo dictatorship, giving the government direct control over what newspapers, radio and film could publish. Full entry | Reversed (January 1, 1945) | 2 |
| March 17, 1950 | South Africa (RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180) | Daniel François Malan | Under Prime Minister Daniel François Malan, South Africa's parliament approved the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950, defining communism broadly enough to cover most opposition to apartheid. Full entry | Reversed (February 2, 1990) | 2 |
| May 24, 1960 | Egypt (RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180) | Gamal Abdel Nasser | President Gamal Abdel Nasser's government issued a decree on May 24, 1960 placing every newspaper and magazine in Egypt under state ownership and management, with the government appointing editors and deciding content, ending private control of the country's press. Full entry | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) | 2 |
| June 26, 1975 | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Indira Gandhi | Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency on June 25, 1975, and the next day her government imposed pre-press controls on every Indian newspaper, requiring official clearance before publication and later forcibly merging the country's news agencies into one. Full entry | Reversed (March 21, 1977) | 1 |
| July 31, 1980 | South Korea (RSF 2026 rank: 47th of 180) | Chun Doo-hwan | Under General Chun Doo-hwan's martial-law government, South Korean authorities ordered newsrooms in 1980 to purge journalists who had resisted press controls or joined a May sit-in strike for press freedom, and closed 172 periodicals, dismissing roughly 2,000 journalists in total. Full entry | Reversed (June 1, 1987) | 2 |
| October 1988 | United Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180) | Margaret Thatcher | Home Secretary Douglas Hurd directed British broadcasters in October 1988 not to air the voices of representatives of Sinn Féin, a party linked to the Irish Republican Army, and other groups linked to violence in Northern Ireland. Full entry | Reversed (September 16, 1994) | 1 |
| April 14, 2001 | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Vladimir Putin | Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas company, used debts owed by NTV's parent company to take control of the country's last major independent television network at a shareholders' meeting, replacing its owner and top editors with its own appointees. Full entry | Sustained (April 14, 2001) | 1 |
| July 27, 2016 | Türkiye (RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180) | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | After a failed July 2016 coup attempt, Turkey's government closed more than 100 newspapers, television and radio stations, news agencies and publishing houses by state-of-emergency decree, citing alleged links to the movement it blamed for the coup. Full entry | Sustained (December 31, 2016) | 2 |
| September 4, 2017 | Cambodia (RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180) | Hun Sen | Cambodia's tax authority presented the independent, English-language Cambodia Daily with a $6.3 million bill the paper called arbitrary and undocumented, forcing the 24-year-old newspaper to close rather than pay, amid a wider campaign against independent media before 2018 elections. Full entry | Sustained (September 4, 2017) | 2 |
| March 8, 2021 | Myanmar (RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180) | Min Aung Hlaing | Weeks after seizing power, Myanmar's military junta revoked the operating licenses of five independent media outlets covering protests against the coup and raided two of their newsrooms, seizing computers and files; journalists from the outlets were later arrested and charged under a broadened pena… Full entry | Sustained | 2 |
| March 4, 2024 | Argentina (RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180) | Javier Milei | President Javier Milei's government fenced off and shut down Telam, Argentina's state-owned news agency, calling it a public-relations operation for the prior Kirchnerist governments; unions and journalist groups called the closure one of the most serious blows to press freedom in decades of Argent… Full entry | Sustained | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 15, 2025 | Hong Kong (RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180) | John Lee | On December 15, 2025, the High Court of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China with its own courts, convicted Jimmy Lai, founder of the newspaper Apple Daily, on two counts of "conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces" under the National Security Law, which China's central go… Full entry | Sustained (February 8, 2026) | 5 |
All ladders · Licensing and closure of outlets: by country and year · The United States chapter