Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments and private institutions. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, it is referred to as self-censorship. General censorship occurs in a variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to control obscenity, pornography, and hate speech, to protect children or other vulnerable groups, to promote or restrict political or religious views, and to prevent slander and libel. Specific rules and regulations regarding censorship vary between legal jurisdictions and/or private organizations.
Definition There are many types of censorship.
Moral censorship is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise considered morally questionable. Pornography, for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, which is illegal and censored in most jurisdictions in the world.
Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential to safeguard national security and maintain public support. This is used to counter espionage.
Political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. This is often done to exert control over the populace and prevent free expression that might foment rebellion.
Religious censorship is the means by which any material considered objectionable by a certain religion is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on less prevalent ones. Alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their religion.
Corporate censorship is the process by which editors in corporate media outlets intervene to disrupt the publishing of information that portrays their business or business partners in a negative light, or intervene to prevent alternate offers from reaching public exposure.
Rationale and criticism Censorship is often used to impose moral values on society, as in the censorship of material considered obscene. English novelist E. M. Forster was a staunch opponent of censoring material on the grounds that it was obscene or immoral, raising the issue of moral subjectivity and the constant changing of moral values. When the 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was put on trial in 1960, Forster wrote:"The Trial of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover, Paul Gallagher, Dangerous Minds, 10 November 2010.
In a 1997 essay, social commentator Michael Landier explains that censorship is counterproductive as it prevents the censored topic from being discussed. He expands his argument by claiming that those who impose censorship must consider what they censor to be true, as individuals believing themselves to be correct would welcome the opportunity to disprove those with opposing views.
Plato is said to have advocated censorship in his essay on The Republic, which opposed the existence of democracy. In contrast to Plato, Greek playwright Euripides (480–406 BC) defended the true liberty of freeborn men, including the right to speak freely., Mette Newth, Beacon for Freedom of Expression (Norway), 2010
In 1766, Sweden became the first country to abolish censorship by law.
Types
Political During the Allied occupation of Japan after World World II, any criticism of the Allies' pre-war policies, the SCAP, the Far East Military Tribunal, the inquiries against the United States and every direct and indirect references to the role played by the Allied High Command in drafting Japan's new constitution or to censorship of publications, movies, newspapers and magazines was subject to massive censorship, purges, media blackout. For the four years (1945–1949) the CCD was active, 200 million pieces of mail and 136 million telegrams were opened, and telephones were tapped 800,000 times. Since no criticism of the occupying forces for crimes such as the dropping of the atomic bomb, rape and robbery by U.S. soldiers was allowed, a strict check was carried out. Those who got caught were put on a blacklist called the watchlist, and the persons and the organizations to which they belonged were investigated in detail, which made it easier to dismiss or arrest them. From 1956 until 1974, the Irish republican political party Sinn Féin was banned from participating in Northern Irish elections. From 1988 until 1994, the U.K. prevented media from broadcasting the voices (but not words) of Sinn Féin and ten Irish republican and Ulster loyalist groups.
According to India's Information Technology Rules 2011, objectionable content includes anything that "threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order".
Iraq under Baathist Saddam Hussein had much the same techniques of press censorship, as did Romania under Ceauşescu, but with greater potential violence.
Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code deems it illegal to "Insult the President of Turkey". A person who is sentenced for a violation of this article can be sentenced to a prison term between one and four years and if the violation was made in public the verdict can be elevated by a sixth. Prosecutions often target critics of the government, independent journalists, and political cartoonists. Between 2014 and 2019, 128,872 investigations were launched for this offense and prosecutors opened 27,717 criminal cases.
In French-speaking Belgium, politicians considered far-right are banned from live media appearances such as interviews or debates.
State secrets and prevention of attention
Censorship is occasionally carried out to aid authorities or to protect an individual, as with some kidnappings when attention and media coverage of the victim can sometimes be seen as unhelpful.
In wartime, explicit censorship is carried out with the intent of preventing the release of information that might be useful to an enemy. Typically it involves keeping times or locations secret, or delaying the release of information (e.g., an operational objective) until it is of no possible use to enemy forces. The moral issues here are often seen as somewhat different, as the proponents of this form of censorship argue that the release of tactical information usually presents a greater risk of casualties among one's own forces and could possibly lead to loss of the overall conflict.
During World War I, letters sent by British soldiers back to the U.K. would have to go through censorship. This consisted of officers going through letters with a black marker and crossing out anything which might compromise operational secrecy before the letter was sent.Eberhard Demm: Censorship, in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War. The World War II catchphrase "Loose lips sink ships" was used as a common justification to exercise official wartime censorship and encourage individual restraint when sharing potentially sensitive information.Eberhard Demm, Censorship and Propaganda in World War I: A Comprehensive History (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) online review
Religion
Religious censorship is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on the basis of the teachings of the religion. This form of censorship has a long history and is practiced in many societies and by many religions. Examples include the Galileo affair, Edict of Compiègne, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (list of prohibited books) and the condemnation of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Images of the Islamic figure Muhammad are also regularly censored, even in secular or less Islamic countries to avoid controversy.
Socrates, while defying attempts by the Athenian state of Ancient Greece to censor his philosophical teachings, was brought charges that led to his death. The conviction is recorded by Plato: in 399 BC, Socrates went on trialM.F. Burnyeat (1997), The Impiety of Socrates Mathesis publications; Ancient Philosophy 17 Accessed November 23, 2017 and was subsequently found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety (asebeia,Debra Nails, A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought Chapter 21 – The Trial and Death of Socrates John Wiley & Sons, 2012 Accessed November 23, 2017 "not believing in the gods of the state"),Plato. Apology, 24–27. and was sentenced to death.Linder, Doug (2002). "The Trial of Socrates". University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved September 12, 2013."Socrates (Greek philosopher)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of expression, but places certain restrictions on content, with a view towards maintaining communal and religious harmony, given the history of communal tension in the nation."The Constitution of India " 658.79 KiB, India Code. Retrieved 3 June 2006.
Under the Penang Islamic Religious Administration Enactment 2004, non-Muslims in Malaysia are penalized for speaking, writing, or publishing numerous words and phrases relevant to Islam, in any language or context, including: Allah, al Quran, fatwa, hadith, Haji, Kaaba, imam, and sheikh.
Educational sources
The way facts and history are presented in schools greatly influences students' interpretation of various subjects. One argument for censoring the type of information disseminated is based on the inappropriate quality of such material for the young people; what "inappropriate" means in this context is in itself controversial, as it has changed heavily. A Ballantine Books version of the book Fahrenheit 451, which is the version used by most school classes,Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Del Rey Books. April 1991. contained approximately 75 separate edits, omissions, and changes from the author's original manuscript.
The content of school textbooks is often an issue. The term "whitewashing" is commonly used to refer to revisionism aimed at glossing over difficult or questionable historical events, or a biased presentation thereof. The reporting of military atrocities in history is extremely controversial, as in the case of the Holocaust (or Holocaust denial), bombing of Dresden, the Nanking Massacre, as found with Japanese history textbook controversies, the Armenian genocide, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and the Winter Soldier Investigation of the Vietnam War.
On the censorship of critical perspectives of U.S. history in American schools, a study published by Indiana University in 2024 found that "in 16 Republican-dominated states, policies have been enacted to restrict the teaching of critical perspectives on race, sexuality, and other controversial subjects and to perpetuate a positive view of U.S. history". In 2019, Julia Carrie Wong wrote "today's reactionaries are picking up the mantle of generations of Americans who have fought to ensure that white children are taught a version of America's past that is more hagiographic than historic", with examples cited including Oregon enacting a law in the 1920s that banned the use of any textbook in schools that "speaks slightingly of the founders", to Lynne Cheney, the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, launching a campaign in the 1990s against an effort to introduce new standards for teaching U.S. history which she found insufficiently "celebratory".
Online access to all language versions of Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey on 29 April 2017 by Erdoğan's government.
Economic induced censorship