Press Freedom in North Carolina

North Carolina has no anti-SLAPP statute. If someone sues you over something you said — a review, a complaint to a regulator, a news story — you defend it the long and expensive way, however baseless the claim. 10 of 51 jurisdictions are in the same position.

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

What North Carolina 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 heardNothing: 0 / 20
• Plaintiff must show the case has meritNothing: 0 / 12
• Denial can be appealed at onceNothing: 0 / 25
• Winning defendant recovers legal costsNothing: 0 / 40
• Courts told to read the law broadlyNothing: 0 / 3

Incidents logged in North Carolina

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has logged 36 press-freedom incidents in North Carolina since 2014, of which 15 are since January 1, 2021.

• Assault13

  Physical attacks on journalists covering a story

• Arrest/Criminal Charge9

  Journalists arrested or charged while reporting

• Equipment Damage8

  Cameras and gear broken during coverage

• Prior Restraint6

  An order not to publish, before publication

• Denial of Access3

  Shut out of a public meeting, scene or record

• Equipment Search or Seizure3

  Devices taken or searched by authorities

• Other Incident2

  Logged, but outside the named categories

• Subpoena/Legal Order2

  Legal demands for notes, sources or footage

• Leak Case1

  Prosecution over leaked material

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 North Carolina. 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 North Carolina courts actually rule are not scored here. None of this is legal advice; talk to a lawyer about an actual dispute.