>Without defending what happened in this case surely there's a very big difference between a government that chooses to withhold information from the media and one that actively prevents/controls what the media can publish?

The mechanism was perfected during the GW2B era - the disobedient media don't get invited to The Source, i.e. they don't get invited to the press conferences. The gov't itself is the single largest source for the news, and if a news publisher is weaned off its teat, they lose a lot of money - they have to get their news from other sources, like having actual reporters in the field, with all the travel and bribe expenses, while the obedient ones get a truckload of stuff to publish by just going to the press conference.

Which was actually a well oiled mechanism in Sloba's times, though at times he did have to use stiffer methods.