{
  "title": "Search: secrets and espionage laws, from 2020, outcome sustained",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/search?tactic=secrets_and_espionage_laws&from=2020&outcome=sustained",
  "filters": {
    "tactic": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
    "from": "2020",
    "outcome": "sustained"
  },
  "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": "HK",
        "label": "Hong Kong",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 140,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180",
          "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
        }
      },
      {
        "value": "VN",
        "label": "Viet Nam",
        "rsf": null
      },
      {
        "value": "ZW",
        "label": "Zimbabwe",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 124,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180",
          "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
        }
      }
    ],
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      {
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        "label": "Africa"
      },
      {
        "value": "asia",
        "label": "Asia"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "label": "Secrets and espionage laws",
        "count": 3
      },
      {
        "value": "detention_and_violence",
        "label": "Detention and violence",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "outlet_licensing",
        "label": "Licensing and closure of outlets",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
        "label": "Insult and defamation laws",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "punish",
        "label": "Punish",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "eliminate",
        "label": "Eliminate",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "state_or_province",
        "label": "State or province",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "sustained",
        "label": "Sustained",
        "count": 3
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "emmerson-mnangagwa",
        "label": "Emmerson Mnangagwa"
      },
      {
        "value": "john-lee",
        "label": "John Lee"
      },
      {
        "value": "nguyen-xuan-phuc",
        "label": "Nguyen Xuan Phuc"
      }
    ],
    "era": [
      {
        "value": "2020s",
        "label": "2020s",
        "count": 3
      }
    ],
    "year": [
      {
        "value": "2021",
        "label": "2021",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "2023",
        "label": "2023",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "2025",
        "label": "2025",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 3
      }
    ]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "2025-hong-kong-convicts-jimmy-lai-under-national-security-law",
      "title": "China (Hong Kong): conviction and 20-year sentence of the media owner Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law, 2025 to 2026",
      "occurred_on": "2025-12-15",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "HK",
      "country_name": "Hong Kong",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "HK",
      "level": "state_or_province",
      "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence",
      "tactics": [
        "detention_and_violence",
        "outlet_licensing",
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "john-lee",
      "leader_name": "John Lee",
      "issue_of_the_day": null,
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2026-02-08",
      "outcome_note": "Sentenced to 20 years in prison on 2026-02-08; no appeal is recorded in the sources cited.",
      "stage": "eliminate",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 140,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "On December 15, 2025, the High Court of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China with its own courts, convicted Jimmy Lai, founder of the newspaper Apple Daily, on two counts of \"conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces\" under the National Security Law, which China's central government imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, and one count of \"conspiracy to publish seditious publications.\" On February 8, 2026, the court sentenced Lai to 20 years in prison. Apple Daily shut down in June 2021 after its accounts were frozen and much of its top leadership was arrested. Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization, called the charges \"bogus.\"",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-hong-kong-convicts-jimmy-lai-under-national-security-law"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2023-zimbabwe-patriotic-act-criminalizes-foreign-contact",
      "title": "Zimbabwe's Patriotic Act criminalizes journalists' contact with foreign governments",
      "occurred_on": "2023-07-14",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "ZW",
      "country_name": "Zimbabwe",
      "continent": "africa",
      "jurisdiction": "ZW",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "insult_and_defamation_laws",
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "emmerson-mnangagwa",
      "leader_name": "Emmerson Mnangagwa",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The bill passed weeks before Zimbabwe's August 2023 general election, at a time when the government accused foreign-linked civil-society and media figures of working to undermine it ahead of the vote.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2023-07-14",
      "outcome_note": "President Mnangagwa signed the bill into law despite CPJ's call for a veto; a court challenge by journalists did not block it.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 124,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Patriotic Act, which criminalizes meeting foreign governments or officials with intent to harm Zimbabwe's sovereignty, with penalties up to death for advocating armed intervention and up to ten years for supporting sanctions, weeks before the country's 2023 general election.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-zimbabwe-patriotic-act-criminalizes-foreign-contact"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2021-vietnam-pham-doan-trang-nine-year-sentence",
      "title": "Vietnam: journalist Pham Doan Trang is sentenced to nine years for anti-state \"propaganda\"",
      "occurred_on": "2021-12-14",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "VN",
      "country_name": "Viet Nam",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "VN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "nguyen-xuan-phuc",
      "leader_name": "Nguyen Xuan Phuc",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Trang had spent years writing and publishing independent reporting and commentary critical of the ruling Communist Party before her arrest, work for which she had already received international press freedom recognition.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2021-12-14",
      "outcome_note": "Trang's nine-year sentence stood as of the source reviewed, with no release reported in it.",
      "stage": "eliminate",
      "ladder_note": "An independent editor received a nine-year sentence under a national-security speech law for her journalism, not a licensing or credential dispute.",
      "rsf": null,
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A Vietnamese court sentenced Pham Doan Trang, founding editor of the independent outlet The Vietnamese, to nine years in prison for distributing anti-state \"propaganda\" under a national-security provision of the country's penal code.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-vietnam-pham-doan-trang-nine-year-sentence"
    }
  ],
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  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
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}