{ "title": "Ladder: secrets and espionage laws, in Africa", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/secrets_and_espionage_laws?continent=africa", "filters": { "continent": "africa" }, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "tactic": { "slug": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "name": "Secrets and espionage laws", "definition": "Laws that make it a crime to obtain, keep or disclose information a government has classified as secret, such as the Espionage Act, a 1917 United States law against disclosing defence information, or the Official Secrets Acts of the United Kingdom. Governments use them to prosecute journalists or, more often, the officials who gave journalists information.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/secrets_and_espionage_laws" }, "focal_case": "US", "count": 3, "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": "2013-egypt-al-jazeera-journalists-jailed", "title": "Egypt arrests and later convicts three Al Jazeera journalists on terrorism-related charges", "occurred_on": "2013-12-29", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": false, "country": "EG", "country_name": "Egypt", "continent": "africa", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 169, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "adly-mansour", "leader_name": "Adly Mansour", "what_was_done": "Months after the military removed President Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian security forces arrested Al Jazeera English journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed at a Cairo hotel; courts later convicted them of aiding a banned organization, and international pressure led to pardons.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2015-09-23", "outcome_note": "President Sisi pardoned Fahmy and Mohamed on September 23, 2015; Greste had already been deported to Australia in February 2015 under a prisoner-transfer arrangement.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "secrets_and_espionage_laws" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-egypt-al-jazeera-journalists-jailed" }, { "slug": "2023-zimbabwe-patriotic-act-criminalizes-foreign-contact", "title": "Zimbabwe's Patriotic Act criminalizes journalists' contact with foreign governments", "occurred_on": "2023-07-14", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": false, "country": "ZW", "country_name": "Zimbabwe", "continent": "africa", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 124, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "emmerson-mnangagwa", "leader_name": "Emmerson Mnangagwa", "what_was_done": "President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Patriotic Act, which criminalizes meeting foreign governments or officials with intent to harm Zimbabwe's sovereignty, with penalties up to death for advocating armed intervention and up to ten years for supporting sanctions, weeks before the country's 2023 g…", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2023-07-14", "outcome_note": "President Mnangagwa signed the bill into law despite CPJ's call for a veto; a court challenge by journalists did not block it.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "tactics": [ "insult_and_defamation_laws", "secrets_and_espionage_laws" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-zimbabwe-patriotic-act-criminalizes-foreign-contact" } ] }, { "stage": "eliminate", "name": "Eliminate", "definition": "Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1995-nigeria-abacha-journalists-tribunal", "title": "Nigeria's military government convicts journalists by special tribunal over coup-plot reporting", "occurred_on": "1995-07-27", "occurred_on_precision": "month", "stage": "eliminate", "focal_case": false, "country": "NG", "country_name": "Nigeria", "continent": "africa", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 112, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 112th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "sani-abacha", "leader_name": "Sani Abacha", "what_was_done": "A special military tribunal convicted four Nigerian journalists as accessories to a supposed 1995 coup plot after they reported on it, sentencing them to lengthy prison terms with no right of appeal, under the military government of General Sani Abacha.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1998-06-15", "outcome_note": "The journalists were released in stages after General Abacha's death in June 1998 under his successor's government; their convictions were not vacated in the sources reviewed.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "secrets_and_espionage_laws" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1995-nigeria-abacha-journalists-tribunal" } ] } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/secrets_and_espionage_laws?continent=africa&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/secrets_and_espionage_laws.json?continent=africa", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/secrets_and_espionage_laws.md?continent=africa" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }