Media blackout

A media blackout is the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be self-imposed or voluntary or enforced by the government or state.

In countries with strong freedom of speech laws and traditions, media blackouts enforced by a government or military are generally rare and highly controversial, especially in peacetime. In those countries, there is sometimes support for media blackouts during armed conflict, but, that is generally limited and voluntary, rather than mandated by force. For example, the United Kingdom's D-Notice system—established during World War II and operating through the 1990s—allowed the executive authorities to media blackouts on certain topics on voluntary basis. In many cases, some media outlets complied while others did not, as it was voluntary.

In countries with centralized, authoritarian governments, media blackouts are commonplace, often enshrined by law, directive, or decree or by the implied threat of harm should media criticize the government. For example, media in the Soviet Union mostly cooperated voluntarily with government media blackouts on a wide variety of issues. However, media less sympathetic to the government were discouraged from violating the blackouts out of fear of arrest, prosecution, or execution.

By governments

Richard Nixon describing an intended press blackout for the New York Times in 1971.

1950s and before

Some examples of media blackout include the media bans of southern Japan during the droppings of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the lack of independent media correspondence from Iraq during the Persian Gulf War.

During World War II, the US Office of Censorship sent messages to newspapers and radio stations, which were acted on by recipients, asking them not to report any sightings or explosions of fire balloons, so the Japanese would have no information on the balloons' effectiveness when planning future actions. As a result, the Japanese learned the fate of only one of their bombs, which landed in Wyoming, but failed to explode. The Japanese stopped all launches after less than six months. The press blackout in the U.S. was lifted after the first deaths from fire balloons, to ensure that the public was warned, though public knowledge of the threat could have possibly prevented the deaths. News of the loss of over 4,000 lives when UK ship RMS Lancastria was sunk during the war was voluntarily suppressed to prevent it affecting civilian morale, but was published after it became known overseas.

1950s to 2020

Asia

During World War II, the Japanese Imperial government had many media blackout laws, one of which being Article 27 of the "Newspaper Law" requiring authorization to publish war-related content whatsoever. After the Japanese surrender to Allied Forces, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers had control over Japanese media for about seven years, under the formation of the Civil Censorship Detachment. The CCD eventually banned a total of 31 topics from all forms of media.

Europe and the Middle East

Russian Media Twitter account withheld in EU

During the Arab Spring, on January 27, 2011, the Egyptian government ordered a complete shutdown of the Internet amid nationwide protests demanding the resignation of then-President Hosni Mubarak. The blackout followed reports of blocked access to social media platforms like Twitter. This was an attempt to control the flow of information and suppress coordination among protestors. Despite these efforts, the protests intensified, ultimately leading to Mubarak’s resignation on February 11, 2011.

A related series of events occurred shortly after the 2011 Egyptian media blackout in nearby Libya under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. In a similar effort to control growing public protests, the government ordered the shutdown of YouTube on Febraury 17, 2011. The following day, it ordered a curfew on internet access, shutting down the internet nationally during the nighttime hours.

2020 to present

Further information: Internet censorship and Internet outage

Since the Arab Spring, there has been a marked increase in achieving media blackouts by blocking internet access as the 2020s saw a significant shift away from traditional media to internet-based streaming and social media platforms. In fact, in some parts of the world, these sort of blackouts are now seen as commonplace.

As part of sanctions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian publicly owned global medias RT and Russian government-owned media Sputnik have been banned from broadcasting and distribution within the EU. Posts on the media's Twitter account are also no longer viewable.

Digital Services Act (DSA) Using concepts such as "countering disinformation" and "responding to crisis situations," there is concern that the European Commission will be able to invoke its "strong powers" to tighten regulations on social networking sites, search engines, etc. In fact, in the EU, Russian media outlets were restricted from reporting in the EU on the occasion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

By individuals or groups

By labor and business

A media blackout was used during the 2005 New Yorxk City transit strike to allow for more effective contract negotiation between the two sides of the dispute.

By newsmedia

In Nassau County, New York, on 4 July 1956, a 32-day-old baby named Peter Weinberger was kidnapped and held for $2,000 ransom; the kidnapper promised to return Weinberger "safe and happy" if his demand was met. Police arranged for the kidnapper to retrieve the money at a corner near Weinberger's home and requested a media blackout to reduce the risk of the kidnapper harming Peter before the exchange. The New York Daily News reported on the kidnapping anyway, drawing heavy press attention to Weinberger's house and scaring the kidnapper out of retrieving the ransom money. The kidnapper then abandoned Weinberger in some heavy brush off a highway exit. Weinberger was found dead a month later, having died of infant exposure.

The 2008 abduction of Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung was given a media blackout to assure her safe return. All media sources obliged making the Canadian public unaware of the fate of Fung.

In 2008, the fact that Prince Harry, then third in line to the British throne, was serving on active duty in Afghanistan was subject to a blackout in the British media for his own safety. He was brought home early after the blackout was broken by foreign media.

In 2009, New York Times journalist David Rohde was released from captivity after having been kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan for seven months. Many were surprised to hear about his return, as they had not heard about his kidnapping. The New York Times worked solicited voluntary ooperation from the larger media industry to keep the kidnapping low-profile, both to increase Rohdes' chances of survival but also to descalate tensions that often come with hostiage-taking.

Further information: Kidnapping of David Rohde

By sports

In association football, a press or media blackout is also referred to as a silenzio stampa (literally press silence) from the corresponding Italian phrase. It specifically refers to when a football club or national team and the players refuse to give interviews or in any other way cooperate with the press, often during important tournaments, or when the club feels that the media does not depict the club and their activities in an objective way. The phrase silenzio stampa was born during the 1982 FIFA World Cup, when the Italian team created a news blackout due to rumors and untrue stories circulating in the press.

See also

• DSMA-Notice
• Freedom of the press
• Gag order
• Prior restraint
• Internet censorship