Tactic
Insult and defamation laws
Laws that make it a crime, not only a civil wrong, to damage a person's reputation, to insult a head of state or a monarch (known as lèse-majesté), or to publish information that a government declares false, including laws against "fake news". Convictions can bring fines or prison.
The earliest incident in the record using this tactic is dated 1 January 1901.
The ladder for insult and defamation laws: where this tactic has led, stage by stage
The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.
Incidents by country and year
Belarus, RSF 2026 rank: 165th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 February 2023 | Belarus: journalist Andrzej Poczobut is sentenced to eight years for inciting hatred | Eliminate | Alexander Lukashenko | Reversed (28 April 2026) |
Ecuador, RSF 2026 rank: 125th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 June 2013 | Ecuador's Organic Communication Law creates a regulator that issues hundreds of sanctions against journalists and outlets | Pressure | Rafael Correa | Reversed (20 February 2019) |
Hong Kong, RSF 2026 rank: 140th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 August 2024 | Hong Kong court convicts Stand News editors of sedition | Punish | John Lee | Upheld by a court (26 September 2024) |
Hungary, RSF 2026 rank: 74th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 March 2020 | Hungary criminalizes false coronavirus information and grants Orban decree powers | Punish | Viktor Orban | Unknown |
India, RSF 2026 rank: 157th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 February 2026 | India: one-year prison sentence for the journalist Ravi Nair in a criminal defamation case, February 2026 | Punish | Narendra Modi | Unknown (10 February 2026) |
Philippines, RSF 2026 rank: 114th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Philippines: United States colonial government's libel law is used to close the newspaper El Renacimiento | Punish | William Howard Taft | Upheld by a court (1 January 1914) |
Russia, RSF 2026 rank: 172nd of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 March 2022 | Russia criminalizes 'fake' reporting on the military, up to 15 years in prison | Punish | Vladimir Putin | Sustained |
| 15 February 2023 | Russia: journalist Maria Ponomarenko is sentenced to six years for reporting on a Mariupol strike | Eliminate | Vladimir Putin | Sustained (15 February 2023) |
Serbia, RSF 2026 rank: 104th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 October 1998 | Serbia's Public Information Act lets courts fine independent newspapers into financial danger | Punish | Slobodan Milosevic | Reversed (1 October 2000) |
Spain, RSF 2026 rank: 29th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1938 | Franco's Spain requires state permission to be a journalist under a wartime Press Law | Silence | Francisco Franco | Reversed (1 April 1977) |
Thailand, RSF rank: not recorded
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 January 2013 | Thailand: magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk is sentenced to 11 years under the lese-majeste law | Eliminate | Yingluck Shinawatra | Upheld by a court (30 April 2018) |
Tunisia, RSF 2026 rank: 137th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 January 2025 | Tunisia's cybercrime decree pushes jailed-journalist count to highest since 1992 | Punish | Kais Saied | Sustained |
Türkiye, RSF 2026 rank: 163rd of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 January 2022 | Türkiye: journalist Sedef Kabas is arrested for a proverb about President Erdogan | Punish | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Ongoing (22 June 2023) |
| 1 November 2023 | Turkish authorities detain three journalists under 'disinformation' law | Punish | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Ongoing |
United States, RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 March 1909 | United States: President Theodore Roosevelt seeks criminal libel indictments against the New York World and the Indianapolis News over Panama Canal reporting | Punish | Theodore Roosevelt | Reversed (3 January 1911) |
| 1960 | United States: Montgomery, Alabama commissioner sues The New York Times for libel over a civil rights advertisement | Punish | John Patterson | Reversed (9 March 1964) |
Zimbabwe, RSF 2026 rank: 124th of 180
| Date | Incident | Stage | Head of government | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 July 2023 | Zimbabwe's Patriotic Act criminalizes journalists' contact with foreign governments | Punish | Emmerson Mnangagwa | Sustained (14 July 2023) |