{
  "slug": "outlet_licensing",
  "name": "Licensing and closure of outlets",
  "definition": "A government requires newspapers, broadcasters or news websites to register or to hold a licence, and uses that power to refuse, suspend or cancel it, or to close the outlet. Broadcast licences, which governments issue because radio and television frequencies are limited, are a common lever.",
  "notes": null,
  "first_recorded_on": "2025-09-17",
  "incident_count": 2,
  "by_country": [
    {
      "country": "HK",
      "country_name": "Hong Kong",
      "count": 1,
      "by_year": {
        "2025": [
          {
            "slug": "2025-hong-kong-convicts-jimmy-lai-under-national-security-law",
            "title": "China (Hong Kong): conviction and 20-year sentence of the media owner Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law, 2025 to 2026",
            "occurred_on": "2025-12-15",
            "occurred_on_precision": "day",
            "country": "HK",
            "country_name": "Hong Kong",
            "continent": "asia",
            "jurisdiction": "HK",
            "level": "state_or_province",
            "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence",
            "tactics": [
              "detention_and_violence",
              "outlet_licensing",
              "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
            ],
            "leader_slug": "john-lee",
            "leader_name": "John Lee",
            "issue_of_the_day": null,
            "outcome": "sustained",
            "outcome_on": "2026-02-08",
            "outcome_note": "Sentenced to 20 years in prison on 2026-02-08; no appeal is recorded in the sources cited.",
            "era": "2020s",
            "granularity": "granular",
            "status": "in_effect",
            "case_count": 0,
            "summary": "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 forces\" under the National Security Law, which China's central government imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, and one count of \"conspiracy to publish seditious publications.\" On February 8, 2026, the court sentenced Lai to 20 years in prison. Apple Daily shut down in June 2021 after its accounts were frozen and much of its top leadership was arrested. Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization, called the charges \"bogus.\"",
            "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-hong-kong-convicts-jimmy-lai-under-national-security-law"
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "count": 1,
      "by_year": {
        "2025": [
          {
            "slug": "2025-fcc-pressure-precedes-kimmel-suspension",
            "title": "United States: Federal Communications Commission chairman's remarks and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, September 2025",
            "occurred_on": "2025-09-17",
            "occurred_on_precision": "day",
            "country": "US",
            "country_name": "United States",
            "continent": "north-america",
            "jurisdiction": "US",
            "level": "national",
            "tactic_primary": "funding_and_ownership_pressure",
            "tactics": [
              "funding_and_ownership_pressure",
              "outlet_licensing"
            ],
            "leader_slug": "donald-trump",
            "leader_name": "Donald Trump",
            "issue_of_the_day": "Jimmy Kimmel's on-air remarks about speculation over the motives of the person who killed Charlie Kirk, according to NPR.",
            "outcome": "reversed",
            "outcome_on": "2025-09-23",
            "outcome_note": "ABC announced the show's return for 2025-09-23 after about a week off the air, according to Al Jazeera (s112).",
            "era": "2020s",
            "granularity": "granular",
            "status": "in_effect",
            "case_count": 0,
            "summary": "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 host Jimmy Kimmel, and warned of \"additional work for the FCC ahead.\" Within hours, the station owners Nexstar and Sinclair said they would pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their stations, and ABC, the network that airs it, did the same, according to NPR. ABC announced that the show would return on September 23, 2025, according to Al Jazeera.",
            "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-fcc-pressure-precedes-kimmel-suspension"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/outlet_licensing?format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/outlet_licensing.json",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/outlet_licensing.md"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}