{ "title": "Ladder: surveillance and subpoenas, in Asia", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas?continent=asia", "filters": { "continent": "asia" }, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "tactic": { "slug": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "name": "Surveillance and subpoenas", "definition": "A government collects journalists' communications or records, often to learn who their sources are. Methods include subpoenas (court orders to hand over records or to testify), search warrants, seizure of phones and notes, demands to telephone and internet companies, and spyware placed on reporters' devices.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/surveillance_and_subpoenas" }, "focal_case": "US", "count": 4, "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": "1998-malaysia-anwar-arrest-press-restrictions", "title": "Malaysia pressures domestic media and monitors foreign correspondents after arresting former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim", "occurred_on": "1998-09-20", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": false, "country": "MY", "country_name": "Malaysia", "continent": "asia", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 95, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 95th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "mahathir-mohamad", "leader_name": "Mahathir Mohamad", "what_was_done": "After Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government arrested former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998, party-linked newspapers pressured staff to follow the official line, police visited journalists who interviewed his wife, and authorities said they would monitor internet traffi…", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "The sources reviewed do not describe a formal reversal of the surveillance of journalists or the pressure on party-linked papers during this period.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1998-malaysia-anwar-arrest-press-restrictions" }, { "slug": "2023-india-tax-authorities-raid-bbc-offices", "title": "Indian tax authorities search BBC offices weeks after Modi documentary ban", "occurred_on": "2023-02-14", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": false, "country": "IN", "country_name": "India", "continent": "asia", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 157, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "narendra-modi", "leader_name": "Narendra Modi", "what_was_done": "India's Income Tax Department searched BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai for alleged tax evasion, three weeks after the government used emergency powers to block a BBC documentary examining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's response to 2002 communal violence.", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "No penalty or further tax action against the BBC was reported; the broadcaster's India operations continued.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "prior_restraint", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-india-tax-authorities-raid-bbc-offices" } ] }, { "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": "2018-saudi-arabia-pegasus-khashoggi-associate", "title": "Saudi Arabia: spyware on an associate's phone precedes Jamal Khashoggi's killing by one day", "occurred_on": "2018-10-01", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": false, "country": "SA", "country_name": "Saudi Arabia", "continent": "asia", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 176, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 176th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "king-salman", "leader_name": "Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud", "what_was_done": "Citizen Lab found Pegasus spyware on the phone of Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, a close associate and collaborator of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, one day before Saudi operatives killed Khashoggi inside the country's Istanbul consulate.", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": "2018-10-01", "outcome_note": "Citizen Lab's finding on the spyware operation itself was not followed, in the source reviewed, by any reported Saudi accountability measure.", "ladder_note": "A journalist's close collaborator was covertly surveilled one day before the journalist himself was killed inside his own country's consulate.", "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-saudi-arabia-pegasus-khashoggi-associate" }, { "slug": "2025-bangladesh-journalists-attacked-interim-government", "title": "Journalists beaten in Bangladesh in separate incidents as interim government drafts new cyber laws", "occurred_on": "2025-02-03", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": false, "country": "BD", "country_name": "Bangladesh", "continent": "asia", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 152, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 152nd of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "muhammad-yunus", "leader_name": "Muhammad Yunus", "what_was_done": "On a single day in February 2025, groups of men beat at least eight journalists in two separate incidents in rural Bangladesh while they investigated a medical-negligence tip and a land dispute; the incidents came as the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus drafted new cyber ordinances rights g…", "outcome": "ongoing", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "No arrests were reported in the incidents described, and the proposed cyber ordinances remained under review.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-bangladesh-journalists-attacked-interim-government" } ] } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas?continent=asia&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas.json?continent=asia", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas.md?continent=asia" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }