 The immediate effect of Peterloo was a crackdown on reform . The government instructed the police and courts to go after the journalists , presses and publication of the Manchester Observer . Wroe was arrested and charged with producing a seditious publication . Found guilty he was sentenced to twelve months in prison and fined £ 100 . Outstanding court cases against the Manchester Observer were rushed through the courts and a continual change of sub @-@ editors was not sufficient defence against a series of police raids , often on the suspicion that someone was writing a radical article . The Manchester Observer closed in February 1820 . 
