{
  "title": "Search: prior restraint in the United States, head of government Donald Trump",
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    {
      "slug": "2025-pentagon-issues-new-press-credentialing-rules",
      "title": "United States: Department of Defense press credential rules requiring approval before release of information, September 2025",
      "occurred_on": "2025-09-19",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
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      "leader_slug": "donald-trump",
      "leader_name": "Donald Trump",
      "issue_of_the_day": null,
      "outcome": "ongoing",
      "outcome_on": "2026-04-09",
      "outcome_note": "Judge Paul Friedman ruled against the credential-revocation provisions on 2026-03-20 and against the revised policy on 2026-04-09; the Department of Defense appealed.",
      "stage": "restrict",
      "ladder_note": null,
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        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
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      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "On September 19, 2025, the United States Department of Defense, the federal department that provides the country's military forces, issued new credential rules for reporters at the Pentagon, its headquarters building, under the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. The rules require that information be approved for public release by an authorizing official \"before it is released, even if it is unclassified,\" and require accredited reporters to pledge not to solicit or publish such information without approval or lose their badges. The Pentagon called the rules \"an important step in preventing leaks that damage operational security and national security.\" A federal judge ruled against the rules in March and April 2026, and the department has appealed (as of 2026-09-22).",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-pentagon-issues-new-press-credentialing-rules"
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    {
      "slug": "2020-hhs-officials-alter-cdc-covid-guidance-before-publication",
      "title": "Political appointees alter CDC coronavirus guidance before public release",
      "occurred_on": "2020-09-12",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint"
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      "leader_slug": "donald-trump",
      "leader_name": "Donald Trump",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The reporting concerned the CDC's coronavirus testing guidance and its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report during the summer and fall of 2020, as the Trump administration sought to align public messaging with the president's own statements about the pandemic.",
      "outcome": "unknown",
      "outcome_on": null,
      "outcome_note": "No agency reversal of the practice was documented in the sources reviewed; a congressional investigation examined the interference without a public admission of wrongdoing.",
      "stage": "restrict",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Reporting in 2020 found that political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services rewrote or edited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's public coronavirus guidance and its weekly scientific bulletin before release, bypassing the agency's normal scientific review.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-hhs-officials-alter-cdc-covid-guidance-before-publication"
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