Search in North America, outcome sustained
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
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El Salvador: freeze on assets of shareholders in El Faro's parent company, February to April 2026
Between February and April 2026, the government of El Salvador, headed by the president, Nayib Bukele, placed "preventative annotations" on a bank account and real estate belonging to two partners of Trípode S.A. de C.V., the parent compan…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Nayib Bukele · Sustained
White House closes 'Upper Press' section of West Wing to reporters
The White House began requiring reporters to make appointments before entering the 'Upper Press' area of the West Wing, home to the press secretary's and senior press aides' offices, citing a need to protect sensitive material after accusi…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger after CBS ombudsman and anti-DEI pledges
The Federal Communications Commission approved Paramount's sale to Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to install an ombudsman to review complaints of bias at CBS News for two years and pledged to end diversity, equity and inclusion progr…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
Congress cuts $1.1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting
At President Trump's request, Congress passed a rescissions package clawing back roughly $1.1 billion already appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminating federal funding for NPR, PBS and their member stations.
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: Paramount settlement of Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview, July 2025
On July 1, 2025, Paramount, the parent company of the United States broadcaster CBS News, announced that it would settle for US$16 million a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, over how the CBS program 60 M…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: Department of Justice rescission of rules limiting subpoenas of journalists, April 2025
On April 25, 2025, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, head of the Department of Justice, the federal department that prosecutes federal crimes, rescinded rules adopted in 2021 and 2022 under her predecessor, Merrick Garl…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
60 Minutes executive producer resigns, citing lost editorial independence
60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned, saying corporate owner Paramount had begun supervising the program's content in new ways while it faced President Trump's lawsuit over a Harris interview and pursued a sale requiring feder…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
White House ends wire services' guaranteed seat in the press pool
The White House ended the decades-old practice of guaranteeing wire services Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg a daily seat in the small press pool that covers the president, making them compete instead for a single rotating print sl…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States: White House takes over selection of the presidential press pool, February 2025
On February 25, 2025, the White House announced that it would decide which journalists join the press pool, the small rotating group of reporters who cover the president of the United States in spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Sustained
United States (Florida): Halo Law buffer zone around first responders, January 2025
On January 1, 2025, the "Halo Law" took effect in Florida, a state in the south-eastern United States. It creates a 25-foot (7.6-metre) buffer zone around first responders, such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics, while they a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Ron DeSantis · Sustained
Nicaragua strips 94 political opponents, including journalists, of citizenship
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…
Expulsion and visa denial · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Daniel Ortega · Sustained
Minneapolis police projectile permanently blinds photojournalist Linda Tirado
Freelance photojournalist Linda Tirado was struck in the face by a less-lethal round fired by Minneapolis police while covering protests over George Floyd's killing, permanently blinding her in one eye; the city settled her lawsuit for $60…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Jacob Frey · Sustained
Nicaragua: freelance correspondent detained and deported after online campaign
A coordinated online campaign accused freelance correspondent Carl David Goette-Luciak of being a foreign agent and circulated his home address, after which he was detained and deported from Nicaragua in September 2018.
Expulsion and visa denial · Stage Punish · Head of government Daniel Ortega · Sustained
United States search warrant names Fox News reporter James Rosen a possible co-conspirator in a leak case
A 2010 FBI search-warrant affidavit, unsealed in 2013, described Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible co-conspirator in violating the Espionage Act because he sought classified information from a State Department analyst, and used t…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Sustained
United States Justice Department secretly seizes two months of Associated Press phone records
The U.S. Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records from more than 20 Associated Press phone lines during a leak investigation, notifying the news agency only after the fact; AP called the scope of the seizure unj…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Sustained
Pentagon sets ground rules for journalists embedded with United States forces in Iraq
Ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon assigned about 600 journalists to travel with United States military units under written ground rules restricting what they could report about troop numbers, operations and casualties.
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government George W. Bush · Sustained
United States military restricts reporters to escorted press pools during the Gulf War
The U.S. military required reporters covering the 1991 Gulf War to work in escorted "pools" rather than move freely, reviewed pool dispatches before release, and reporters who left the pools were captured or detained.
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government George H. W. Bush · Sustained
Cuba: Prime Minister Fidel Castro publicly criticizes Havana newspapers that questioned his government, September 1959
In a September 28, 1959 television appearance, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro criticized Havana newspapers, including Diario de la Marina, that had questioned his government's actions, along with the Inter American Press Association's d…
Official labels · Stage Pressure · Head of government Fidel Castro · Sustained
United States Senate panel subpoenas dozens of New York Times journalists over Communist ties
The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator James Eastland, issued 35 subpoenas over past or present Communist Party ties in the press, and 26 of them went to New York Times staff. The newspaper protested but several employee…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Dwight D. Eisenhower · Sustained
United States: Tallahatchie County, Mississippi sheriff segregates Black reporters at the Emmett Till murder trial, September 1955
When the murder trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam opened in Sumner, Mississippi, on September 19, 1955, Tallahatchie County Sheriff Clarence Strider assigned Black reporters covering the trial, along with Michigan congressman Charles Digg…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Hugh L. White · Sustained
United States creates an Office of Censorship and a wartime code for the press
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…
Prior restraint · Stage Pressure · Head of government Franklin D. Roosevelt · Sustained
Canada: War Measures Act regulations authorize review of hundreds of newspapers and ban political organizations
Canada invoked the War Measures Act at the outset of the Second World War and used it to bring in the Defence of Canada Regulations, which gave the government power to review and restrict hundreds of newspapers and periodicals and to ban d…
Prior restraint · Stage Silence · Head of government William Lyon Mackenzie King · Sustained