Skip to content
Critical Severity

Executive Prior Restraint on Speech

This provision allows the Division—an administrative body appointed by the President—to issue orders immediately halting publication activities without prior judicial review, notice, or opportunity to be heard. Violating these orders triggers automatic penalties without warning (bypassing the three-warning system in 71), and can be issued against anyone "deemed to be engaged" in publishing "false or other information"—an extraordinarily vague standard. This creates a mechanism for executive prior restraint on speech, where government-appointed officials can silence speakers before constitutional defenses can be raised, fundamentally undermining freedom of expression and democratic discourse.