{
  "title": "Search: shutdowns and blocking, 1900 to 1949",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/search?tactic=shutdowns_and_blocking&from=1900&to=1949",
  "filters": {
    "tactic": "shutdowns_and_blocking",
    "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": "AU",
        "label": "Australia",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 33,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 33rd 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": "north-america",
        "label": "North America"
      },
      {
        "value": "oceania",
        "label": "Oceania"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "shutdowns_and_blocking",
        "label": "Shutdowns and blocking",
        "count": 3
      },
      {
        "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "label": "Secrets and espionage laws",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "prior_restraint",
        "label": "Prior restraint",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "silence",
        "label": "Silence",
        "count": 3
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 3
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "upheld",
        "label": "Upheld by a court",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "reversed",
        "label": "Reversed",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "john-curtin",
        "label": "John Curtin"
      },
      {
        "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": "1944",
        "label": "1944",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 3
      }
    ]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "1944-australia-calwell-newspaper-seizure",
      "title": "Australia's wartime government seizes a Sydney newspaper edition under press controls rules",
      "occurred_on": "1944-04-16",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "AU",
      "country_name": "Australia",
      "continent": "oceania",
      "jurisdiction": "AU",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint",
      "tactics": [
        "prior_restraint",
        "shutdowns_and_blocking"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "john-curtin",
      "leader_name": "John Curtin",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Australia remained at war in the Pacific in 1944, and its wartime press controls apparatus, already the subject of tension with newspaper proprietors, moved against the Sunday Telegraph for material it judged to breach the press controls rules.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "1944-04-18",
      "outcome_note": "The High Court of Australia granted an injunction days after the seizure, blocking further suppression of the newspaper's editions.",
      "stage": "silence",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 33,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "1940s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Australia's wartime government, under Prime Minister John Curtin, controlled press coverage of military events through the Department of Information. In April 1944, Minister for Information Arthur Calwell ordered the seizure of copies of the Sydney Sunday Telegraph for breaching press controls rules, prompting newspapers' joint protest and a High Court injunction against the seizure.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1944-australia-calwell-newspaper-seizure"
    },
    {
      "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=shutdowns_and_blocking&from=1900&to=1949&format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/search.json?tactic=shutdowns_and_blocking&from=1900&to=1949",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/search.md?tactic=shutdowns_and_blocking&from=1900&to=1949"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}