{
  "title": "Search: prior restraint, head of government Margaret Thatcher",
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        "value": "1980s",
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      "slug": "1988-uk-broadcasting-ban-sinn-fein",
      "title": "United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices",
      "occurred_on": "1988-10-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "month",
      "country": "GB",
      "country_name": "United Kingdom",
      "continent": "europe",
      "jurisdiction": "GB",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "outlet_licensing",
      "tactics": [
        "outlet_licensing",
        "prior_restraint"
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      "leader_slug": "margaret-thatcher",
      "leader_name": "Margaret Thatcher",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Violence linked to the conflict in Northern Ireland, often called the Troubles, continued through the 1980s, and the British government wanted to deny paramilitary-linked political figures what it considered a broadcasting platform.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "1994-09-16",
      "outcome_note": "The broadcasting ban was lifted on September 16, 1994, shortly after the Irish Republican Army's August 1994 ceasefire declaration.",
      "stage": "silence",
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      "rsf": {
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        "rank": 18,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "1980s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Home Secretary Douglas Hurd directed British broadcasters in October 1988 not to air the voices of representatives of Sinn Féin, a party linked to the Irish Republican Army, and other groups linked to violence in Northern Ireland. Broadcasters got around it by having actors read transcripts of the same interviews.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1988-uk-broadcasting-ban-sinn-fein"
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