Ladder
Ladder: secrets and espionage laws, in Europe
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.
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
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4Silence
Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.
Weeks after Britain entered the First World War, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith told the House of Commons that the Official Press Bureau was the sole channel through which the Admiralty, the War Office and other departments released naval and military information to newspapers.
Sustained 12 November 1914 · 2 sources · Full entry
5Eliminate
Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.
A Russian court sentenced military correspondent Ivan Safronov to 22 years in prison for treason, accusing him of spying for a foreign state, in a case his supporters linked to his 2019 reporting on Russian arms sales to Egypt.
Note: A journalist received a 22-year sentence for treason in a case linked to his own earlier reporting, far longer than any credential, licensing or fine-based restriction.
Ongoing 5 September 2022 · 2 sources · Full entry
All ladders · Secrets and espionage laws: by country and year · The United States chapter