{
  "title": "Search: lawsuits against the press, 1900 to 1949",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/search?tactic=lawsuits_against_press&from=1900&to=1949",
  "filters": {
    "tactic": "lawsuits_against_press",
    "from": "1900",
    "to": "1949"
  },
  "sort": "date",
  "count": 2,
  "page": 1,
  "pages": 1,
  "per_page": 50,
  "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.",
  "facets": {
    "country": [
      {
        "value": "PH",
        "label": "Philippines",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 114,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180",
          "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
        }
      },
      {
        "value": "US",
        "label": "United States",
        "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"
        }
      }
    ],
    "continent": [
      {
        "value": "asia",
        "label": "Asia"
      },
      {
        "value": "north-america",
        "label": "North America"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
        "label": "Insult and defamation laws",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "lawsuits_against_press",
        "label": "Lawsuits against the press",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "punish",
        "label": "Punish",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "reversed",
        "label": "Reversed",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "upheld",
        "label": "Upheld by a court",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "theodore-roosevelt",
        "label": "Theodore Roosevelt"
      },
      {
        "value": "william-howard-taft",
        "label": "William Howard Taft"
      }
    ],
    "era": [
      {
        "value": "1900s",
        "label": "1900s",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "year": [
      {
        "value": "1901",
        "label": "1901",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "1909",
        "label": "1909",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 2
      }
    ]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "1909-us-panama-canal-libel-prosecutions",
      "title": "United States: President Theodore Roosevelt seeks criminal libel indictments against the New York World and the Indianapolis News over Panama Canal reporting",
      "occurred_on": "1909-03-04",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "insult_and_defamation_laws",
        "lawsuits_against_press"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "theodore-roosevelt",
      "leader_name": "Theodore Roosevelt",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The New York World and the Indianapolis News had published reports on who had profited from the United States' purchase of the Panama Canal, reports that Roosevelt disputed as libelous.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "1911-01-03",
      "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court's 1911 ruling that no federal criminal libel law existed for offenses on federal enclaves left the World and the News without convictions and was later described as an early safeguard for the freedom of the press.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "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": "1900s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "President Theodore Roosevelt sought federal criminal libel indictments against the publishers of the New York World and the Indianapolis News after they reported that he and other officials had profited from the United States' purchase of the Panama Canal. Federal courts in New York and Indiana dismissed the indictments, and the Supreme Court upheld that result in 1911.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1909-us-panama-canal-libel-prosecutions"
    },
    {
      "slug": "1901-philippines-us-colonial-libel-act-el-renacimiento",
      "title": "Philippines: United States colonial government's libel law is used to close the newspaper El Renacimiento",
      "occurred_on": "1901-01-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "year",
      "country": "PH",
      "country_name": "Philippines",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "PH",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "insult_and_defamation_laws",
        "lawsuits_against_press"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "william-howard-taft",
      "leader_name": "William Howard Taft",
      "issue_of_the_day": "El Renacimiento was a newspaper that supported Philippine independence during United States colonial rule, and its 1908 editorial criticizing unnamed colonial officials as birds of prey drew a libel suit from Secretary of the Interior Dean C. Worcester.",
      "outcome": "upheld",
      "outcome_on": "1914-01-01",
      "outcome_note": "Kalaw and Ocampo's convictions were affirmed on appeal, and Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison pardoned Ocampo in 1914, after the fine had already forced the paper to close.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 114,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "1900s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "The United States colonial government in the Philippines enacted a criminal libel law in 1901 that Governor-General William Howard Taft defended by saying Filipinos were unused to the freedom of the press. The law was used in 1908 to convict the editors and publisher of the pro-independence newspaper El Renacimiento over an editorial criticizing colonial officials, and the resulting fine forced the paper to close.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1901-philippines-us-colonial-libel-act-el-renacimiento"
    }
  ],
  "other_results": [],
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    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/search.md?tactic=lawsuits_against_press&from=1900&to=1949"
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  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}