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Censorship

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In ancient Rome, censorship was the office or function of a censor. This article is about controls over publication and discussion. The utensil for incense is a censer; a device or organ that senses its environment is a sensor.

Censorship is the use of state or group power to control freedom of expression. In a modern sense censorship consists of any attempt to suppress information, points of view, or method of expression such as art, or profanity. Censorship is commonly used by social groups, organized religions, corporations and governments. However, there are also numerous groups which oppose censorship.

Types of censorship

Censorship can be explicit, as in laws passed to prevent information being published or propagated (as in Australia, China, or Saudi Arabia where certain Internet pages are not permitted entry), or it can be implicit, taking the form of intimidation by government or even by popular censure, where people are afraid to express or support certain opinions for fear of losing their lives, or their jobs, position in society, or in academia, their academic credibility. In this latter form it is similar to McCarthyism. These two forms (explicit and implicit) can be generalized to represent laws and government authority (explicit) and social forces or social persuasion (implicit).

State Secrets

Wartime censorship is carried out with the intention of preventing the release of information that might be advantageous to the enemy. Typically it involves obfuscation of times or locations, or delaying the release of information (e.g. the objective of an operation) until it is of no possible use to enemy forces. Mention of weapons and equipment (especially if newly introduced) is another favourite area for censorship. The moral issues here are somewhat different as release of the information carries a high risk of increased casualties among one's own forces and possibly loss of the overall conflict.

Implementation

Censorship is regarded as a typical feature of dictatorships and other authoritarian political systems. Democratic nations usually have far less institutionalized censorship, and instead tout the importance of freedom of speech.

Some thinkers understand censorship to include other attempts to suppress points of view or ideas such as negative propaganda, media manipulation, spin, disinformation or "free speech zones" (ghettoizing or containing speech). These methods, collectively, tend to work by disseminating misleading information or by preventing other ideas from obtaining a receptive audience.

Others point out the suppression of access to the means of dissemination of ideas by governmental bodies such as the FCC in the United States of America, the CRTC in Canada, or by a newspaper that refuses to run commentary the publisher disagrees with, or a lecture hall that refuses to rent itself out to a particular speaker. Thinkers such as philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand consider this latter form of censorship to be an acceptable outcome of the defense of property rights. Contradictions of her position emerge from her disapproval of state backed monopoly license in the arena of radio and telecommunication broadcast and state funding of the arts.

Prevention and bypassing

Data havens and decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing systems such as Freenet can be used to prevent censorship. A recent phenomenom for avoiding censorship and speaking directly to members of society is culture jamming, where individuals or non-conforming groups use large-scale corporate techniques to attack implicit domination and censorship through trivial or deliberately irrelevant messages. More traditionally, mass protests are a method for resisting unwanted impositions.

Censorship around the world

Other types of censorship

Censorship of media

See also

External links

References

  • Abbott, Randy. "A Critical Analysis of the Library-Related Literature Concerning Censorship in Public Libraries and Public School Libraries in the United States During the 1980s." Project for degree of Education Specialist, University of South Florida, December 1987.
  • Burress, Lee. "Battle of the Books." Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1989.
  • O'Reilly, Robert C. and Larry Parker. "Censorship_or Curriculum Modification?" Paper presented at a School Boards Association, 1982, 14 p.
  • Hendrikson, Leslie. "Library Censorship: ERIC Digest No. 23." ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, Boulder, Colorado, November 1985.
  • Hoffman, Frank. "Intellectual Freedom and Censorship." Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1989.
  • Marek, Kate. "Schoolbook Censorship USA." June 1987.
  • National Coalition against Censorship (NCAC). "Books on Trial: A Survey of Recent Cases." January 1985.
  • Small, Robert C., Jr. "Preparing the New English Teacher to Deal with Censorship, or Will I Have to Face it Alone?" Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English, 1987, 16 p.
(arguing that the English teacher should get advice from school librarians in preparing to encounter three levels of censorship:
  1. rejection of adolescent fiction and popular teen magazines as having low value,
  2. experienced colleagues discouraging "difficult" lesson plans,
  3. outside interest groups limiting students' exposure. )
  • Terry, John David II. "Censorship: Post Pico." In "School Law Update, 1986," edited by Thomas N. Jones and Darel P. Semler.
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