{
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  "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.",
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    "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",
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          "year": 2026,
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          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 168th of 180",
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          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 172,
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          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180",
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        "value": "VN",
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        "value": "daniel-ortega",
        "label": "Daniel Ortega"
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      {
        "value": "john-lee",
        "label": "John Lee"
      },
      {
        "value": "nguyen-xuan-phuc",
        "label": "Nguyen Xuan Phuc"
      },
      {
        "value": "vladimir-putin",
        "label": "Vladimir Putin"
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        "value": "2021",
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        "count": 1
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        "value": "2023",
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        "value": "2025",
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  "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-russia-ponomarenko-fake-news-sentence",
      "title": "Russia: journalist Maria Ponomarenko is sentenced to six years for reporting on a Mariupol strike",
      "occurred_on": "2023-02-15",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "RU",
      "country_name": "Russia",
      "continent": "europe",
      "jurisdiction": "RU",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "insult_and_defamation_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "vladimir-putin",
      "leader_name": "Vladimir Putin",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Ponomarenko's post concerned an airstrike that hit a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, in March 2022, a strike Russian authorities have denied responsibility for.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2023-02-15",
      "outcome_note": "Ponomarenko's six-year sentence and five-year journalism ban stood as of the source reviewed.",
      "stage": "eliminate",
      "ladder_note": "A journalist received a six-year sentence and a five-year professional ban under a wartime false-information law for one social media post, not a fine or license action.",
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 172,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A Russian court sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison and a five-year ban on journalism under a law criminalizing \"false information\" about the military, after she published a Telegram post about an airstrike on a Mariupol theater that Russia denies carrying out.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-russia-ponomarenko-fake-news-sentence"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2023-nicaragua-strips-journalists-citizenship",
      "title": "Nicaragua strips 94 political opponents, including journalists, of citizenship",
      "occurred_on": "2023-02-15",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "NI",
      "country_name": "Nicaragua",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "NI",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "expulsion_and_visa_denial",
      "tactics": [
        "disinformation_labeling",
        "expulsion_and_visa_denial"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "daniel-ortega",
      "leader_name": "Daniel Ortega",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The rulings followed years of pressure on Nicaragua's independent press, including the earlier forced closure of the country's oldest newspaper, La Prensa, and came days after Ortega's government released 222 jailed dissidents to the United States and stripped their citizenship as well.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": null,
      "outcome_note": "Citizenship was not restored to those named; Ortega's government continued comparable actions against critics afterward.",
      "stage": "eliminate",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 168,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 168th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A Nicaraguan appeals court stripped 94 government opponents, including exiled journalists Carlos Fernando Chamorro and Alvaro Navarro, of their citizenship, days after President Daniel Ortega released 222 political prisoners to the United States and immediately declared them stateless too.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-nicaragua-strips-journalists-citizenship"
    },
    {
      "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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