| October 29, 2025 | Tanzania shuts down internet access on election day amid unrest | Tanzania (RSF 2026 rank: 117th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Samia Suluhu Hassan | Unknown |
| March 15, 2025 | United States: U.S. Agency for Global Media action to shut down Voice of America operations, March 2025 | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Donald Trump | Ongoing (March 28, 2025) |
| March 4, 2024 | Milei's government shuts down Argentina's state news agency Telam | Argentina (RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Javier Milei | Sustained |
| February 13, 2023 | Cambodia: Prime Minister Hun Sen orders Voice of Democracy's license revoked over one article | Cambodia (RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Hun Sen | Sustained (February 13, 2023) |
| September 5, 2022 | Russia: a Moscow court suspends Novaya Gazeta's print license | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Vladimir Putin | Sustained (September 5, 2022) |
| June 24, 2021 | China (Hong Kong): Apple Daily closes after its assets are frozen under the national security law | Hong Kong (RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Carrie Lam | Sustained (June 24, 2021) |
| May 18, 2021 | Belarus blocks Tut.by and arrests its editors as 'extremist' | Belarus (RSF 2026 rank: 165th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Alexander Lukashenko | Sustained |
| March 8, 2021 | Myanmar junta revokes five outlets' licenses and raids newsrooms after coup | Myanmar (RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Min Aung Hlaing | Sustained |
| February 14, 2021 | Hungary: Klubradio loses its terrestrial broadcast license over its tender application | Hungary (RSF 2026 rank: 74th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Viktor Orban | Upheld by a court (September 1, 2021) |
| August 5, 2019 | India imposes a communications blackout in Jammu and Kashmir after revoking the region's special status | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Narendra Modi | Ongoing (August 5, 2020) |
| September 4, 2017 | Cambodia's government forces the closure of The Cambodia Daily with a disputed multimillion-dollar tax bill | Cambodia (RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Hun Sen | Sustained (September 4, 2017) |
| July 27, 2016 | Turkey closes more than 100 media outlets by decree after a failed coup attempt | Türkiye (RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Sustained (December 31, 2016) |
| June 2010 | Israel: a court bars any mention of the 'Prisoner X' case | Israel (RSF 2026 rank: 116th of 180) | Prior restraint | Benjamin Netanyahu | Unknown (June 1, 2010) |
| May 27, 2007 | Venezuela: the government declines to renew RCTV's broadcast concession | Venezuela (RSF 2026 rank: 159th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Hugo Chavez | Sustained (September 8, 2015) |
| April 14, 2001 | State-controlled Gazprom takes formal control of Russia's independent NTV television network | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Vladimir Putin | Sustained (April 14, 2001) |
| October 1988 | United Kingdom bars broadcasters from airing Sinn Féin members' own voices | United Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Margaret Thatcher | Reversed (September 16, 1994) |
| September 18, 1988 | Burma's new military government tightens pre-publication press controls after seizing power | Myanmar (RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180) | Prior restraint | Saw Maung | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) |
| November 2, 1985 | South Africa bans television and photographic coverage of unrest under a state of emergency | South Africa (RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | P. W. Botha | Reversed (June 1, 1990) |
| December 13, 1981 | Poland's martial law government shuts nearly all newspapers and interns journalists overnight | Poland (RSF 2026 rank: 27th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Wojciech Jaruzelski | Reversed (July 22, 1983) |
| July 31, 1980 | South Korea's martial-law government purges journalists who resisted press controls | South Korea (RSF 2026 rank: 47th of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Chun Doo-hwan | Reversed (June 1, 1987) |
| June 26, 1975 | India imposes pre-press controls on every newspaper during the 1975 Emergency | India (RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180) | Prior restraint | Indira Gandhi | Reversed (March 21, 1977) |
| September 11, 1973 | Chile's military government shuts opposition radio stations and newspapers after the 1973 coup | Chile (RSF 2026 rank: 70th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Augusto Pinochet | Sustained (March 1, 1990) |
| September 21, 1972 | Philippines President Marcos closes every major news outlet under martial law | Philippines (RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Ferdinand Marcos | Reversed (February 25, 1986) |
| June 15, 1971 | United States government seeks an injunction to stop The New York Times publishing the Pentagon Papers | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Prior restraint | Richard Nixon | Reversed (June 30, 1971) |
| August 21, 1968 | Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia is followed by the return of government press press controls | Czechia (RSF 2026 rank: 11th of 180) | Prior restraint | Alexander Dubček | Reversed (November 1, 1989) |
| May 24, 1960 | Egypt's Nasser government nationalizes every newspaper and magazine in the country | Egypt (RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180) | Funding and ownership pressure | Gamal Abdel Nasser | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) |
| March 17, 1950 | South Africa's Suppression of Communism Act lets the government ban publications and restrict individuals | South Africa (RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180) | Prior restraint | Daniel François Malan | Reversed (February 2, 1990) |
| 1948 | Israel retains a British-era law giving the military the power to review and restrict the press | Israel (RSF 2026 rank: 116th of 180) | Prior restraint | David Ben-Gurion | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) |
| April 16, 1944 | Australia's wartime government seizes a Sydney newspaper edition under press controls rules | Australia (RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180) | Prior restraint | John Curtin | Reversed (April 18, 1944) |
| 1939 | Brazil's Vargas government creates a state messaging department with broad press powers | Brazil (RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180) | Licensing and closure of outlets | Getúlio Vargas | Reversed (January 1, 1945) |
| April 1938 | Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime Press Law | Spain (RSF 2026 rank: 29th of 180) | Credential control | Francisco Franco | Reversed (April 1, 1977) |
| October 4, 1933 | Nazi Germany's Editors Law bars Jewish journalists from the press and puts editors under state direction | Germany (RSF 2026 rank: 14th of 180) | Credential control | Adolf Hitler | Reversed (May 8, 1945) |
| 1933 | Portugal's Salazar government formally establishes press press controls under a new constitution | Portugal (RSF 2026 rank: 10th of 180) | Prior restraint | António de Oliveira Salazar | Reversed (April 25, 1974) |
| 1922 | Soviet Russia creates Glavlit, a central office to review all printed material before publication | Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180) | Prior restraint | Vladimir Lenin | Ongoing (January 1, 1989) |
| July 1917 | United States postmaster bars the magazine The Masses from the mail under the Espionage Act | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Secrets and espionage laws | Woodrow Wilson | Upheld by a court (November 1, 1917) |
| 1917 | United States Postmaster General Burleson strips the Milwaukee Leader of its mailing rate | United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180) | Shutdowns and blocking | Woodrow Wilson | Upheld by a court (March 7, 1921) |