{
  "title": "Search: secrets and espionage laws, 1900 to 1949",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/search?tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&from=1900&to=1949",
  "filters": {
    "tactic": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
    "from": "1900",
    "to": "1949"
  },
  "sort": "date",
  "count": 3,
  "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": "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": "north-america",
        "label": "North America"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "label": "Secrets and espionage laws",
        "count": 3
      },
      {
        "value": "shutdowns_and_blocking",
        "label": "Shutdowns and blocking",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "prior_restraint",
        "label": "Prior restraint",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "pressure",
        "label": "Pressure",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "silence",
        "label": "Silence",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 3
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "upheld",
        "label": "Upheld by a court",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "sustained",
        "label": "Sustained",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "franklin-d-roosevelt",
        "label": "Franklin D. Roosevelt"
      },
      {
        "value": "woodrow-wilson",
        "label": "Woodrow Wilson"
      }
    ],
    "era": [
      {
        "value": "1910s",
        "label": "1910s",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "1940s",
        "label": "1940s",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "year": [
      {
        "value": "1917",
        "label": "1917",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "1941",
        "label": "1941",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 3
      }
    ]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "1941-us-office-of-censorship-wartime-press-code",
      "title": "United States creates an Office of Censorship and a wartime code for the press",
      "occurred_on": "1941-12-19",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint",
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "franklin-d-roosevelt",
      "leader_name": "Franklin D. Roosevelt",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The United States had just entered the Second World War after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the government wanted to prevent newspapers and broadcasters from unintentionally publishing information useful to enemy forces.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "1945-09-28",
      "outcome_note": "The Office of Censorship operated on the press's voluntary compliance through the war and was abolished by executive order after Japan's surrender.",
      "stage": "pressure",
      "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": "1940s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Twelve days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Office of Censorship. Its director, Byron Price, a former Associated Press editor, wrote a Code of Wartime Practices asking newspapers and broadcasters to withhold information such as troop movements, and most of the press followed it voluntarily.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1941-us-office-of-censorship-wartime-press-code"
    },
    {
      "slug": "1917-us-espionage-act-bars-the-masses-from-the-mail",
      "title": "United States postmaster bars the magazine The Masses from the mail under the Espionage Act",
      "occurred_on": "1917-07-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "month",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "shutdowns_and_blocking"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "woodrow-wilson",
      "leader_name": "Woodrow Wilson",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The United States had entered the First World War three months earlier and introduced a military draft. The Masses had run cartoons and articles opposing the war and conscription, which the Post Office treated as material likely to obstruct recruiting.",
      "outcome": "upheld",
      "outcome_on": "1917-11-01",
      "outcome_note": "The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Judge Hand's order later in 1917, and the Post Office's mail ban on The Masses stood.",
      "stage": "silence",
      "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": "1910s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "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. A judge's order protecting the magazine was reversed on appeal.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-espionage-act-bars-the-masses-from-the-mail"
    },
    {
      "slug": "1917-us-burleson-mail-ban-milwaukee-leader",
      "title": "United States Postmaster General Burleson strips the Milwaukee Leader of its mailing rate",
      "occurred_on": "1917-01-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "year",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "shutdowns_and_blocking",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "shutdowns_and_blocking"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "woodrow-wilson",
      "leader_name": "Woodrow Wilson",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The Leader had published articles criticizing United States participation in the First World War and the draft, which the Post Office treated as violations of the Espionage Act's ban on obstructing military recruitment.",
      "outcome": "upheld",
      "outcome_on": "1921-03-07",
      "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court upheld the revocation of the Leader's mailing rate 7 to 2 in United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson.",
      "stage": "silence",
      "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": "1910s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "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. The Supreme Court upheld the revocation in 1921, over two dissents warning it amounted to press controls.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-burleson-mail-ban-milwaukee-leader"
    }
  ],
  "other_results": [],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/search?tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&from=1900&to=1949&format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/search.json?tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&from=1900&to=1949",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/search.md?tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&from=1900&to=1949"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}