Press Freedom in Illinois

Illinois scores 59 of 100 on the Institute for Free Speech's anti-SLAPP rubric, against a median of 85 across the 51 jurisdictions.

The overall score is two parts coverage to one part protections, as IFS weights them.

What Illinois actually gives a defendant

The five protections IFS scores. A statute can cover every kind of speech and still leave a defendant paying their own lawyer for two years.

• Case pauses while the motion is heardFull marks: 20 / 20
• Plaintiff must show the case has meritFull marks: 12 / 12
• Denial can be appealed at onceFull marks: 25 / 25
• Winning defendant recovers legal costsPartial: 36 / 40
• Courts told to read the law broadlyFull marks: 3 / 3

Illinois scores on all five, which only a minority of jurisdictions do.

Incidents logged in Illinois

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has logged 120 press-freedom incidents in Illinois since 2014, of which 76 are since January 1, 2021.

• Assault65

  Physical attacks on journalists covering a story

• Subpoena/Legal Order32

  Legal demands for notes, sources or footage

• Equipment Damage17

  Cameras and gear broken during coverage

• Arrest/Criminal Charge10

  Journalists arrested or charged while reporting

• Equipment Search or Seizure6

  Devices taken or searched by authorities

• Other Incident6

  Logged, but outside the named categories

• Denial of Access3

  Shut out of a public meeting, scene or record

• Prior Restraint3

  An order not to publish, before publication

• Border Stop1

  Stopped and questioned at a border crossing

• Chilling Statement1

  Officials threatening the press publicly

This is a count, not a score. It tracks where the protests and the newsrooms are as much as where the law is hostile, so a big state will out-count a small one whatever its statute says. An incident can carry more than one category, so the categories sum to more than the total. Nothing here is added to the anti-SLAPP score.

Where this comes from

The grade and the five component scores are the Institute for Free Speech's 2025 Report Card entry for Illinois. Incident counts are the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, used under CC BY 4.0. Both retrieved September 19, 2026. The score is IFS's own judgement and is not part of the FreedomRankings score.

Anti-SLAPP law is one part of press freedom, not all of it — shield laws, public records law and how Illinois courts actually rule are not scored here. None of this is legal advice; talk to a lawyer about an actual dispute.