{
  "slug": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
  "name": "Secrets and espionage laws",
  "definition": "Laws that make it a crime to obtain, keep or disclose information a government has classified as secret, such as the Espionage Act, a 1917 United States law against disclosing defence information, or the Official Secrets Acts of the United Kingdom. Governments use them to prosecute journalists or, more often, the officials who gave journalists information.",
  "notes": null,
  "first_recorded_on": "2013-10-10",
  "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": {
        "2013": [
          {
            "slug": "2013-obama-doj-charges-eight-under-espionage-act",
            "title": "United States: Espionage Act prosecutions of sources for leaks to the press, 2009 to 2013",
            "occurred_on": "2013-10-10",
            "occurred_on_precision": "day",
            "country": "US",
            "country_name": "United States",
            "continent": "north-america",
            "jurisdiction": "US",
            "level": "national",
            "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
            "tactics": [
              "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
              "surveillance_and_subpoenas"
            ],
            "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
            "leader_name": "Barack Obama",
            "issue_of_the_day": null,
            "outcome": "unknown",
            "outcome_on": null,
            "outcome_note": "The record documents the prosecutions as a group; the outcome of each case is not recorded here.",
            "era": "2010s",
            "granularity": "anchor",
            "status": "in_effect",
            "case_count": 0,
            "summary": "A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organization in New York that documents cases of journalists imprisoned or killed worldwide, published on October 10, 2013, found that since 2009 the United States Department of Justice had brought felony charges against six government employees and two contractors, including Edward Snowden, accused of leaking classified information to the press. The charges were brought under the Espionage Act, a 1917 United States law against disclosing defence information, during the presidency of Barack Obama. The Project On Government Oversight, a United States non-profit that investigates the federal government, said the department under Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder \"has used it more than all prior administrations combined.\"",
            "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-obama-doj-charges-eight-under-espionage-act"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/secrets_and_espionage_laws?format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/secrets_and_espionage_laws.json",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/secrets_and_espionage_laws.md"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}