The War On News

A record of government actions against journalism and fact-based reporting, from the first press laws to today

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The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

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CountryArgentina, RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180Australia, RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180AzerbaijanBangladesh, RSF 2026 rank: 152nd of 180Belarus, RSF 2026 rank: 165th of 180Brazil, RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180Cambodia, RSF 2026 rank: 151st of 180Canada, RSF 2026 rank: 20th of 180Chile, RSF 2026 rank: 70th of 180China, RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180CubaCzechia, RSF 2026 rank: 11th of 180Ecuador, RSF 2026 rank: 125th of 180Egypt, RSF 2026 rank: 169th of 180El Salvador, RSF 2026 rank: 143rd of 180EritreaEthiopia, RSF 2026 rank: 148th of 180Georgia, RSF 2026 rank: 135th of 180Germany, RSF 2026 rank: 14th of 180GreeceGuatemala, RSF 2026 rank: 128th of 180Haiti, RSF 2026 rank: 107th of 180Hong Kong, RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180Hungary, RSF 2026 rank: 74th of 180India, RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180IndonesiaIran, RSF 2026 rank: 177th of 180Israel, RSF 2026 rank: 116th of 180JapanKazakhstanMalaysia, RSF 2026 rank: 95th of 180MaltaMexicoMoroccoMyanmar, RSF 2026 rank: 166th of 180Nicaragua, RSF 2026 rank: 168th of 180Nigeria, RSF 2026 rank: 112th of 180North KoreaPakistan, RSF 2026 rank: 153rd of 180PeruPhilippines, RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180Poland, RSF 2026 rank: 27th of 180Portugal, RSF 2026 rank: 10th of 180Russia, RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180Saudi Arabia, RSF 2026 rank: 176th of 180Serbia, RSF 2026 rank: 104th of 180Slovakia, RSF 2026 rank: 37th of 180South Africa, RSF 2026 rank: 21st of 180South Korea, RSF 2026 rank: 47th of 180Spain, RSF 2026 rank: 29th of 180Tanzania, RSF 2026 rank: 117th of 180ThailandTunisia, RSF 2026 rank: 137th of 180Türkiye, RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180United Kingdom, RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180United States, RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180Venezuela, RSF 2026 rank: 159th of 180Viet NamZimbabwe, RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180
Head of governmentAbdel Fattah el-SisiAbiy AhmedAdly MansourAdolf HitlerAlberto FujimoriAlejandro GiammatteiAleksandar VucicAlexander DubčekAlexander LukashenkoAlfred E. SmithAndries Cornelis Dirk de GraeffAntónio de Oliveira SalazarArtur da Costa e SilvaAugusto PinochetAung San Suu KyiBalthazar Johannes VorsterBarack ObamaBeata SzydloBenjamin NetanyahuBob MartinezCarrie LamChun Doo-hwanDaniel François MalanDaniel OrtegaDavid Ben-GurionDavid CameronDonald TrumpDoug DuceyDwight D. EisenhowerEbrahim RaisiEdward HeathEmmerson MnangagwaEnrique Pena NietoEurith D. RiversFerdinand MarcosFidel CastroFrancisco FrancoFranklin D. RooseveltFumimaro KonoeGamal Abdel NasserGeorge H. W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorgios TsolakoglouGetúlio VargasHassan RouhaniHerbert Henry AsquithHugh L. WhiteHugo ChavezHun SenIlham AliyevIndira GandhiIrakli KobakhidzeIsaias AfwerkiJ. James ExonJacob FreyJavier MileiJean-Claude DuvalierJeff LandryJoe BidenJohn CurtinJohn HorganJohn LeeJohn MagufuliJohn PattersonJorge Rafael VidelaJoseph MuscatJuan PerónKais SaiedKaren BassKassym-Jomart TokayevKim Jong IlKonrad AdenauerLaura KellyLi PengMahathir MohamadMahmoud AhmadinejadMargaret ThatcherMateusz MorawieckiMehmed VMikhail GorbachevMin Aung HlaingMuhammad YunusNarendra ModiNayib BukeleNguyen Tan DungNguyen Xuan PhucNicolas MaduroOscar K. AllenP. W. BothaPrice DanielRafael CorreaRecep Tayyip ErdoğanRichard NixonRobert FicoRobert MugabeRodrigo DuterteRon DeSantisRonald ReaganSaadeddine OthmaniSalman bin Abdulaziz Al SaudSamia Suluhu HassanSani AbachaSaw MaungScott MorrisonShehbaz SharifSlobodan MilosevicStanley BaldwinTheodore ChristiansonTheodore RooseveltTim WalzViktor OrbanVladimir LeninVladimir PutinWilliam Howard TaftWilliam Lyon Mackenzie KingWojciech JaruzelskiWoodrow WilsonXi JinpingYingluck Shinawatra

226 incidents match. Showing 26 on page 5 of 5.

DateIncidentCountryTacticHead of governmentOutcome
16 April 1944Australia's wartime government seizes a Sydney newspaper edition under press controls rulesAustralia (RSF 2026 rank: 33rd of 180)Prior restraintJohn CurtinReversed (18 April 1944)
August 1942United States: Justice Department investigates the Chicago Tribune under the Espionage Act over Battle of Midway coverageUnited States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Secrets and espionage lawsFranklin D. RooseveltReversed (1 August 1942)
19 December 1941United States creates an Office of Censorship and a wartime code for the pressUnited States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Prior restraintFranklin D. RooseveltSustained (28 September 1945)
8 May 1941Greece: collaborationist government creates a Directorate-General for Press and Radio to review films and publications before releaseGreece (RSF rank: not recorded)Prior restraintGeorgios TsolakoglouSustained
3 September 1939Canada: War Measures Act regulations authorize review of hundreds of newspapers and ban political organizationsCanada (RSF 2026 rank: 20th of 180)Prior restraintWilliam Lyon Mackenzie KingSustained (31 December 1945)
1939Brazil's Vargas government creates a state messaging department with broad press powersBrazil (RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180)Licensing and closure of outletsGetúlio VargasReversed (1 January 1945)
April 1938Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime Press LawSpain (RSF 2026 rank: 29th of 180)Credential controlFrancisco FrancoReversed (1 April 1977)
28 March 1938United States: Supreme Court strikes down a Georgia city's permit requirement for distributing literature, 1938United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Prior restraintEurith D. RiversReversed (28 March 1938)
July 1937Japan: government requires clearance to publish war news under the Newspaper Law, 1937Japan (RSF rank: not recorded)Prior restraintFumimaro KonoeSustained
12 July 1934United States: Louisiana taxes large newspapers' advertising revenue; the tax is struck down in Grosjean v. American Press Co.United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Funding and ownership pressureOscar K. AllenReversed (10 February 1936)
4 October 1933Nazi Germany's Editors Law bars Jewish journalists, 1933Germany (RSF 2026 rank: 14th of 180)Credential controlAdolf HitlerReversed (8 May 1945)
28 February 1933Germany: Reichstag Fire Decree suspends freedom of the press, February 1933Germany (RSF 2026 rank: 14th of 180)Licensing and closure of outletsAdolf HitlerSustained (1 May 1945)
1933Portugal's Salazar government formally establishes press controls under a new constitutionPortugal (RSF 2026 rank: 10th of 180)Prior restraintAntónio de Oliveira SalazarReversed (25 April 1974)
1927Minnesota closes The Saturday Press in 1927; the Supreme Court strikes down the law in 1931United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Prior restraintTheodore ChristiansonReversed (1 June 1931)
May 1926United Kingdom: Government requisitions newsprint and restricts rival newspapers during the 1926 General StrikeUnited Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180)Funding and ownership pressureStanley BaldwinOngoing (10 May 1926)
1926Dutch East Indies: Colonial authorities end publication of the communist newspaper Mawa under Penal Code Article 153 bis, 1926Indonesia (RSF rank: not recorded)Licensing and closure of outletsAndries Cornelis Dirk de GraeffSustained (1 January 1926)
8 June 1925United States: Supreme Court upholds Benjamin Gitlow's conviction under New York's Criminal Anarchy Law, 1925United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Secrets and espionage lawsAlfred E. SmithUpheld by a court (8 June 1925)
1922Glavlit created: Soviet censorship office, 1922Russia (RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180)Prior restraintVladimir LeninOngoing (1 January 1989)
26 June 1918United States convicts newspaper editor Jacob Frohwerk under the Espionage Act, June 1918United States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Secrets and espionage lawsWoodrow WilsonUpheld by a court (10 March 1919)
July 1917United States postmaster bars the magazine The Masses from the mail under the Espionage ActUnited States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Secrets and espionage lawsWoodrow WilsonUpheld by a court (1 November 1917)
1917United States convicts Mother Earth editor Emma Goldman of draft conspiracy and bars her magazine from the mailUnited States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Detention and violenceWoodrow WilsonUpheld by a court (14 January 1918)
1917United States Postmaster General Burleson strips the Milwaukee Leader of its mailing rateUnited States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Shutdowns and blockingWoodrow WilsonUpheld by a court (7 March 1921)
27 August 1914Britain's Official Press Bureau controls newspaper coverage of the First World WarUnited Kingdom (RSF 2026 rank: 18th of 180)Prior restraintHerbert Henry AsquithSustained (12 November 1914)
9 March 1913Ottoman Empire bars lawmakers and officials from editing newspapers and jails a leading editorTürkiye (RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180)Licensing and closure of outletsMehmed VSustained (9 March 1913)
4 March 1909United States: President Theodore Roosevelt seeks criminal libel indictments against the New York World and the Indianapolis News over Panama Canal reportingUnited States (RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180)Insult and defamation lawsTheodore RooseveltReversed (3 January 1911)
1901Philippines: United States colonial government's libel law is used to close the newspaper El RenacimientoPhilippines (RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180)Insult and defamation lawsWilliam Howard TaftUpheld by a court (1 January 1914)
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