Ladder: surveillance and subpoenas, in Europe

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.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

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3Punish

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.

GBUnited KingdomRSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180

18 August 2013David Cameron

British authorities detained David Miranda, partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, for nine hours at Heathrow Airport under anti-terrorism powers, and separately had Guardian staff destroy hard drives holding files leaked by Edward Snowden rather than hand them to a court.

Upheld by a court 19 January 2016 · 3 sources · Full entry

HUHungaryRSF 2026 rank: 74th of 180

July 2021Viktor Orban

Amnesty International found forensic traces of Pegasus spyware on the phone of Direkt36 investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi, who covers Hungarian national security and diplomacy, as part of the wider Pegasus Project investigation.

Note: A journalist's phone was covertly infected with spyware capable of reading his communications and locating his sources, rather than a subpoena for records already created.

Ongoing 1 July 2021 · 3 sources · Full entry

All ladders · Surveillance and subpoenas: by country and year · The United States chapter