Ladder: shutdowns and blocking
A government cuts internet or mobile telephone service, blocks news websites or social media platforms, or jams radio and television signals, so that audiences cannot receive news and reporters cannot send it out.
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 21, 2009 | Iran (RSF 2026 rank: 177th of 180) | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad | After Iran's disputed June 2009 presidential election produced mass protests, the government expelled BBC correspondent Jon Leyne, revoked foreign press credentials, confined most foreign journalists to office-based reporting, and blocked access to numerous websites. Full entry | Unknown | 2 |
| March 4, 2022 | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Vladimir Putin | Russia's parliament passed a law criminalizing the publication of information about the military that contradicts official statements, with penalties up to 15 years in prison, prompting Novaya Gazeta to pull its Ukraine war coverage and the BBC, CNN and other outlets to suspend operations inside Ru… Full entry | Sustained | 2 |
| July 28, 2024 | Venezuela (RSF 2026 rank: 159th of 180) | Nicolas Maduro | In the two weeks after Venezuela's disputed July 28, 2024 presidential election, Reporters Without Borders documented 70 press-freedom violations, including nine detentions, nine expulsions of foreign correspondents and the suspension of the social media platform X, as President Nicolas Maduro's go… Full entry | Sustained | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1917 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Woodrow Wilson | Postmaster General Albert Burleson used the wartime Espionage Act to strip the Milwaukee Leader, a socialist daily, of its low-cost second-class mailing rate, cutting off its main channel to readers. Full entry | Upheld by a court (March 7, 1921) | 2 |
| July 1917 | Focal case United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Woodrow Wilson | Weeks after the United States entered the First World War, the New York postmaster used the new Espionage Act, a law against interfering with military recruitment, to bar the socialist magazine The Masses from the mail. Full entry | Upheld by a court (November 1, 1917) | 2 |
| April 16, 1944 | Australia (RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180) | John Curtin | Australia's wartime government, under Prime Minister John Curtin, controlled press coverage of military events through the Department of Information. Full entry | Reversed (April 18, 1944) | 2 |
| August 21, 1968 | Czechia (RSF 2026 rank: 11th of 180) | Alexander Dubček | Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20-21, 1968 to end the Prague Spring, a period of liberalization under Alexander Dubček that had included the lifting of press press controls. Full entry | Reversed (November 1, 1989) | 2 |
| September 21, 1972 | Philippines (RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180) | Ferdinand Marcos | President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, and the next day ordered the military to take over nearly every newspaper, radio and television station in the Philippines, jailing prominent publishers and editors and requiring government clearance for whatever remained. Full entry | Reversed (February 25, 1986) | 2 |
| September 11, 1973 | Chile (RSF 2026 rank: 70th of 180) | Augusto Pinochet | On the day of the September 11, 1973 military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende, Chile's armed forces bombed and shut down radio stations that opposed the takeover, arrested journalists and closed newspapers aligned with the ousted government, under the military junta led by Augusto Pi… Full entry | Sustained (March 1, 1990) | 2 |
| December 13, 1981 | Poland (RSF 2026 rank: 27th of 180) | Wojciech Jaruzelski | On December 13, 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland, cutting phone and telex lines, suspending nearly all newspapers, and interning thousands of people, most Solidarity trade union journalists among them, within days. Full entry | Reversed (July 22, 1983) | 2 |
| November 2, 1985 | South Africa (RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180) | P. W. Botha | Under a state of emergency State President P. W. Botha had declared in July 1985, the government banned television, radio and photographic coverage of unrest in South Africa's Black townships on November 2, 1985, requiring print journalists to report only under police escort. Full entry | Reversed (June 1, 1990) | 1 |
| August 5, 2019 | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Narendra Modi | As it revoked Jammu and Kashmir's constitutional autonomy, India's government cut broadband, mobile internet, text messaging and phone service across the region, leaving local journalists unable to file stories, verify information or communicate with sources for months. Full entry | Ongoing (August 5, 2020) | 2 |
| May 18, 2021 | Belarus (RSF 2026 rank: 165th of 180) | Alexander Lukashenko | Belarusian authorities blocked access to Tut.by, the country's most-read independent news site, searched its offices in three cities and arrested at least eleven staff, including its editor-in-chief, citing alleged media-law violations after the site had already lost its official media status. Full entry | Sustained | 3 |
| October 29, 2025 | Tanzania (RSF 2026 rank: 117th of 180) | Samia Suluhu Hassan | Tanzania's government restricted internet and social-media access on October 29, 2025, as citizens voted in a general election marked by protests, cutting national internet traffic by nearly 90 percent and leaving both local and foreign journalists unable to report on the vote and its aftermath in… Full entry | Unknown | 2 |
All ladders · Shutdowns and blocking: by country and year · The United States chapter