{ "title": "Ladder: licensing and closure of outlets, in South America", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/outlet_licensing?continent=south-america", "filters": { "continent": "south-america" }, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "tactic": { "slug": "outlet_licensing", "name": "Licensing and closure of outlets", "definition": "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.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/outlet_licensing" }, "focal_case": "US", "count": 5, "stages": [ { "stage": "pressure", "name": "Pressure", "definition": "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.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1997-pe-ivcher-stripped-of-citizenship", "title": "Peru strips television station owner Baruch Ivcher of his citizenship after critical reporting", "occurred_on": "1997-07-01", "occurred_on_precision": "month", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": false, "country": "PE", "country_name": "Peru", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": null, "leader_slug": "alberto-fujimori", "leader_name": "Alberto Fujimori", "what_was_done": "In July 1997, the government of President Alberto Fujimori stripped Baruch Ivcher, the Israeli-born owner of Peru's Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2 television station, of his Peruvian citizenship, making him ineligible under Peruvian law to own the station.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "As of the Committee to Protect Journalists' report on 1999, Ivcher remained in exile and the Winter brothers retained majority control of Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "outlet_licensing" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1997-pe-ivcher-stripped-of-citizenship" } ] }, { "stage": "silence", "name": "Silence", "definition": "Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1939-brazil-vargas-creates-dip", "title": "Brazil's Vargas government creates a state messaging department with broad press powers", "occurred_on": "1939-01-01", "occurred_on_precision": "year", "stage": "silence", "focal_case": false, "country": "BR", "country_name": "Brazil", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 52, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "getulio-vargas", "leader_name": "Getúlio Vargas", "what_was_done": "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.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1945-01-01", "outcome_note": "The DIP was dissolved in 1945 when the military removed Vargas from power and the Estado Novo dictatorship ended.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing", "tactics": [ "outlet_licensing", "prior_restraint" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1939-brazil-vargas-creates-dip" }, { "slug": "1951-argentina-peron-la-prensa-handed-to-cgt", "title": "Argentina: President Juan Perón's government hands the expropriated newspaper La Prensa to the CGT labor federation, October 1951", "occurred_on": "1951-10-01", "occurred_on_precision": "month", "stage": "silence", "focal_case": false, "country": "AR", "country_name": "Argentina", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 98, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "juan-peron", "leader_name": "Juan Perón", "what_was_done": "La Prensa, one of Argentina's leading newspapers and a longtime critic of President Juan Perón's government, was expropriated by the state earlier in 1951.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "1951-10-01", "outcome_note": "La Prensa remained under CGT control until Perón's government was overthrown in 1955, after which it was returned to its previous owners.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing", "tactics": [ "outlet_licensing", "shutdowns_and_blocking" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1951-argentina-peron-la-prensa-handed-to-cgt" }, { "slug": "2007-venezuela-rctv-license-not-renewed", "title": "Venezuela: the government declines to renew RCTV's broadcast concession", "occurred_on": "2007-05-27", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "silence", "focal_case": false, "country": "VE", "country_name": "Venezuela", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 159, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 159th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "hugo-chavez", "leader_name": "Hugo Chavez", "what_was_done": "Venezuela's government let Radio Caracas Television's twenty-year broadcast concession expire rather than renew it, replacing the country's most-watched channel with a new state broadcaster; a regional human rights court later found the decision violated free expression.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2015-09-08", "outcome_note": "A regional human rights court found in 2015 that the 2007 non-renewal violated free expression, but the source reviewed does not report RCTV's return to open-signal broadcasting.", "ladder_note": "The country's most-watched television channel lost its national broadcast concession entirely, later found by an international court to have been aimed at ending its critical coverage.", "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing", "tactics": [ "outlet_licensing" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2007-venezuela-rctv-license-not-renewed" }, { "slug": "2024-argentina-milei-closes-telam", "title": "Milei's government shuts down Argentina's state news agency Telam", "occurred_on": "2024-03-04", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "silence", "focal_case": false, "country": "AR", "country_name": "Argentina", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 98, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "javier-milei", "leader_name": "Javier Milei", "what_was_done": "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…", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "Telam's original newsroom remained closed; the agency was later reorganized as a smaller state communications operation.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "outlet_licensing" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-argentina-milei-closes-telam" } ] } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/outlet_licensing?continent=south-america&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/outlet_licensing.json?continent=south-america", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/outlet_licensing.md?continent=south-america" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }