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United States: White House hard-pass deactivations for CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters, September 2026
On September 18, 2026, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Truth Social, a social media platform, and in the Oval Office that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be banned from the White House, the president's office…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Kazakhstan: fabricated copyright complaints used against journalists
An investigation found paid services in Kazakhstan filing fabricated copyright complaints, impersonating global brands, to get social media platforms to remove journalists' accounts and posts, alongside criminal prosecutions of the press.
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Kassym-Jomart Tokayev · Ongoing
Russia: law on asset freezes and service denials for exiled "foreign agents", August 2026
On August 4, 2026, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed a law, adopted unanimously by the Russian parliament on July 24, 2026, that allows the authorities to freeze bank accounts, block property and vehicle sales and deny consul…
Official labels · Stage Pressure · Head of government Vladimir Putin · Sustained
Customs officers seize Grayzone editor's phones at Virginia airport over Iran reporting
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal at Washington Dulles Airport, questioned him about his reporting trips to Iran, and seized both of his phones without his consent; the phones were returned…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Appeals court orders FCC to respond to challenge over 'news distortion' policy
A bipartisan group of former Federal Communications Commission chairs, commissioners and the Radio Television Digital News Association petitioned a federal appeals court to force the FCC to act on a long-pending request to rescind its deca…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
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
Hungary: a ruling-party mayor forcibly removes Telex reporters from a campaign event
A mayor from Hungary's ruling Fidesz party physically removed two Telex journalists from a campaign forum in a community center, covering their camera lens and pushing them out after they declined to leave what he called a closed event.
Access bans · Stage Punish · Head of government Viktor Orban · Ongoing
India: one-year prison sentence for the journalist Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case, February 2026
On February 10, 2026, a court in India sentenced the investigative journalist Ravi Nair to one year in prison and a fine of 5,000 rupees (about US$55) for criminal defamation, an offence under which a statement that damages someone's reput…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Narendra Modi · Unknown
Israel: ban on independent entry of foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip, 2023 to 2026
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, the government of Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean coast between Israel and Egypt, independently; foreign corres…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Sustained
China (Hong Kong): conviction and 20-year sentence of the media owner Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law, 2025 to 2026
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 force…
Detention and violence · Stage Eliminate · Head of government John Lee · 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
Tanzania shuts down internet access on election day amid unrest
Tanzania's government restricted internet and social-media access on October 29, 2025, as citizens voted in a general election marked by protests, cutting national internet traffic by nearly 90 percent and leaving both local and foreign jo…
Shutdowns and blocking · Stage Silence · Head of government Samia Suluhu Hassan · Unknown
United States: News organizations turn in their Pentagon press credentials, October 2025
Beginning on October 15, 2025, reporters from at least 30 news organizations vacated the press workspace at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, rather than sign the department's new credential pledge,…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: Department of Defense press credential rules requiring approval before release of information, September 2025
On September 19, 2025, the United States Department of Defense, the federal department that provides the country's military forces, issued new credential rules for reporters at the Pentagon, its headquarters building, under the Secretary o…
Credential control · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
United States: Federal Communications Commission chairman's remarks and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, September 2025
On September 17, 2025, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the United States regulator of broadcasting, Brendan Carr, said broadcasters could "do this the easy way or the hard way" over remarks by the television ho…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Reversed
Trump files, then refiles, $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times
President Trump sued The New York Times and four of its journalists for $15 billion over articles and a book published before the 2024 election; a judge dismissed the sprawling original complaint for violating basic pleading rules, and Tru…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Serbian police strike, detain and disarm journalists covering anti-government protests
The Committee to Protect Journalists documented at least 28 Serbian journalists reporting being struck, detained, sprayed with chemical irritants or having their equipment destroyed by police between June and September 2025 while covering…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Aleksandar Vucic · Ongoing
Ethiopia arrests at least six journalists including Sheger FM staff over election-year coverage
Ethiopian authorities arrested at least six journalists between August and September 2025, including three from Sheger FM after the Ethiopian Media Authority ordered the station to delete a broadcast it accused of bias and inciting violenc…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Abiy Ahmed · Ongoing
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
Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein birthday letter story
President Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, its owner Rupert Murdoch and two reporters for at least $10 billion, disputing the newspaper's report describing a bawdy letter he was said to have sent Jeffrey Epstein for a 2003 birthday albu…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
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
Officer shoots Australian journalist with rubber bullet during Los Angeles immigration protests
A law enforcement officer shot Nine News Australia correspondent Lauren Tomasi with a rubber bullet while she was reporting live from a Los Angeles protest against federal immigration raids, prompting Australia's prime minister to call the…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Karen Bass · Unknown
United States: Executive Order 14290 directing an end to federal funding for NPR and PBS, May 2025
On May 1, 2025, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed Executive Order 14290, "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media." It directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private non-profit corporation cre…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
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
Türkiye: detention, injury and deportation of journalists covering protests, March 2025
After the detention of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on March 19, 2025, protests spread in Türkiye, and between March 19 and March 28, 2025, the authorities detained at least 13 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect J…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Recep Tayyip Erdoğan · Unknown
United States: U.S. Agency for Global Media action to shut down Voice of America operations, March 2025
Beginning on March 15, 2025, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the United States federal agency that oversees the government's international broadcasters, placed most of its staff on paid administrative leave and moved to shut down…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Silence · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
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: White House exclusion of the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, February 2025
On February 11, 2025, the White House, the office of the president of the United States, began barring journalists from the Associated Press (AP), a United States news agency, from the Oval Office and Air Force One, the aircraft that carri…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Border czar Tom Homan says ICE media ride-alongs may end over leaks
White House border czar Tom Homan said the administration might stop letting journalists ride along on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations after an Aurora, Colorado raid captured far fewer people than expected, which officials a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Donald Trump · Unknown
Journalists beaten in Bangladesh in separate incidents as interim government drafts new cyber laws
On a single day in February 2025, groups of men beat at least eight journalists in two separate incidents in rural Bangladesh while they investigated a medical-negligence tip and a land dispute; the incidents came as the interim government…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Muhammad Yunus · Ongoing
United States (Louisiana): Federal court order blocking enforcement of the police buffer zone law, January 2025
On January 31, 2025, Judge John W. deGravelles of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, a federal trial court, blocked enforcement of the state's 25-foot (7.6-metre) police buffer zone law with a preliminar…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Jeff Landry · Ongoing
Pakistan amends cybercrime law to create new agency policing 'fake' online content
Pakistan's parliament amended the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act to create a new Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority with power to block online content and a Social Media Protection Tribunal, and made spreading informatio…
Official labels · Stage Punish · Head of government Shehbaz Sharif · Sustained
FCC chair reopens 'news distortion' complaints against CBS and NBC
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr reopened complaints alleging CBS and NBC distorted the news, demanding CBS turn over the full tape and transcript of a 60 Minutes interview and later accusing NBC's parent Comcast of mis…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
Tunisia's cybercrime decree pushes jailed-journalist count to highest since 1992
The Committee to Protect Journalists found at least four journalists imprisoned under Tunisia's 2022 Decree-Law 54 on cybercrime as of January 2025, including radio hosts Mourad Zghidi and Borhen Bsaies, pushing the country's jailed-journa…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Kais Saied · 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
Trump sues Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer over final Iowa poll
President-elect Trump sued the Des Moines Register and longtime pollster Ann Selzer under Iowa's consumer fraud law over her final pre-election poll, which showed Kamala Harris ahead in Iowa days before Trump won the state; a judge later q…
Lawsuits against the press · Stage Pressure · Head of government Donald Trump · Ongoing
China: editor Dong Yuyu is sentenced to seven years for espionage over meals with a diplomat
A Chinese court sentenced Guangming Daily editor and columnist Dong Yuyu to seven years in prison for espionage after his 2022 arrest while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, a case his son called purely political.
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Xi Jinping · Ongoing
Hong Kong court convicts Stand News editors of sedition
A Hong Kong court convicted former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam of conspiring to publish seditious material, under a colonial-era law, over articles the outlet had run before police raided its newsroom and it closed at…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government John Lee · Upheld by a court
Kazakhstan: new accreditation rules let officials withdraw a journalist's pass for off-topic questions
Kazakhstan's government adopted rules allowing journalists' accreditation to be withdrawn for six months over conduct at a news event, including asking off-topic questions, while proposing separate rules letting the foreign ministry deny f…
Credential control · Stage Punish · Head of government Kassym-Jomart Tokayev · Ongoing
Venezuela detains, expels and restricts journalists after disputed 2024 election
In the two weeks after Venezuela's disputed July 28, 2024 presidential election, Reporters Without Borders documented 70 press-freedom violations, including nine detentions, nine expulsions of foreign correspondents and the suspension of t…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Nicolas Maduro · Sustained
Slovakia's parliament dissolves public broadcaster RTVS, replaces it with STVR
Slovakia's parliament, controlled by Prime Minister Robert Fico's coalition, dissolved public broadcaster RTVS and replaced it with a new entity, STVR, whose director is now chosen through a process giving parliament and the culture minist…
Licensing and closure of outlets · Stage Pressure · Head of government Robert Fico · Sustained
Georgia enacts 'foreign influence' law requiring media to register as foreign-backed
Georgia's parliament passed a law requiring media and civil-society groups that receive 20 percent or more of their funding from abroad to register as organizations "serving the interests of a foreign power," over mass street protests and…
Official labels · Stage Pressure · Head of government Irakli Kobakhidze · Sustained
United States (Louisiana): 25-foot buffer zone law around police officers, May 2024
On May 24, 2024, the governor of Louisiana, a state in the southern United States, Jeff Landry, signed a law that makes it a crime to stay within 25 feet (about 7.6 metres) of a working law enforcement officer after the officer has told a…
Access bans · Stage Restrict · Head of government Jeff Landry · Ongoing
Milei's government shuts down Argentina's state news agency Telam
President Javier Milei's government fenced off and shut down Telam, Argentina's state-owned news agency, calling it a public-relations operation for the prior Kirchnerist governments; unions and journalist groups called the closure one of…
Funding and ownership pressure · Stage Silence · Head of government Javier Milei · Sustained
Bombay High Court strikes down India's government 'fact check unit' rule
India's 2023 amendment to its Information Technology Rules empowered a government-run Fact Check Unit to label online content about the central government 'fake' or 'false' and require its removal; comedian Kunal Kamra and media groups cha…
Official labels · Stage Pressure · Head of government Narendra Modi · Reversed
Iran: journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi are sentenced to 13 and 12 years
Iranian journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who broke the story of Mahsa Amini's death in police custody, were sentenced to 13 and 12 years respectively on national-security-linked charges tied to their reporting, and later re…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Eliminate · Head of government Ebrahim Raisi · Ongoing
Hungary: National Sovereignty Protection Act and Sovereignty Protection Office, December 2023
On December 20, 2023, the president of Hungary, Katalin Novák, promulgated the National Sovereignty Protection Act, passed by the National Assembly, Hungary's parliament, during the government of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán. The law c…
Official labels · Stage Pressure · Head of government Viktor Orban · Reversed