Home      Discussion      Topics      Dictionary      Almanac
Signup       Login
Censorship

Censorship

Overview
Censorship is the suppression of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

 or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.

The rationale for censorship is different for various types of information censored:
  • Moral censorship is the removal of materials that are obscene
    Obscenity
    Obscenity , is a term that is most often used in a legal context to describe expressions that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time...

     or otherwise morally questionable.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Censorship'
Start a new discussion about 'Censorship'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum
 
Quotations

"Assassination is the extreme form of censorship."

George Bernard Shaw|George Bernard Shaw, s:The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet/PrefaceThe limits to toleration|"The limits to Tolerance", in preface of s:The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet|The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet

"Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads."

George Bernard Shaw|George Bernard Shaw

"All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship."

George Bernard Shaw|George Bernard Shaw, Preface to Mrs. Warren's Profession

"Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself."

Potter Stewart|Potter Stewart

"The Internet treats censorship as a defect and routes around it."

John Gilmore|John Gilmore

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

Noam Chomsky|Noam Chomsky

"Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed."

Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight D. Eisenhower, Speech at Dartmouth College|Dartmouth College (14 June 1953)
Encyclopedia
Censorship is the suppression of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

 or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.

Rationale


The rationale for censorship is different for various types of information censored:
  • Moral censorship is the removal of materials that are obscene
    Obscenity
    Obscenity , is a term that is most often used in a legal context to describe expressions that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time...

     or otherwise morally questionable. Pornography
    Pornography
    Pornography or porn is the depiction of explicit sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual excitement.Over the past few decades, an immense industry for the production and consumption of pornography has grown, with the increasing use of the VCR, the DVD, and the Internet, as well as the...

    , for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography
    Child pornography
    Child pornography refers to images or films depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child; as such, child pornography is a visual record of child sexual abuse...

    , which is censored in most jurisdictions in the world.
  • Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence
    Military intelligence
    Military intelligence is a military service that uses intelligence gathering disciplines to collect informations that informs commanders decision making process....

     and tactics
    Military tactics
    Military tactics, the art of organizing an army, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle....

     confidential and away from the enemy. This is used to counter espionage
    Espionage
    Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, as the legitimate holder of the information may change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

    , which is the process of gleaning military information. Very often, militaries will also attempt to suppress politically inconvenient information even if that information has no actual intelligence value.
  • Political censorship
    Political censorship
    Political censorship exists when a government attempts to conceal, distort, or falsify information that its citizens receive by suppressing or crowding out political news that the public might receive through news outlets. In the absence of unflattering but objective information, people will be...

    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
    Rebellion
    Rebellion is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors from civil disobedience and mass nonviolent resistance, to violent and organized attempts to destroy an established authority such as the government. Those who participate in rebellions are...

    .
  • Religious censorship
    Censorship by religion
    Censorship by religion 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...

    is the means by which any material objectionable to a certain faith 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 faith.
  • Corporate censorship
    Corporate censorship
    Corporate censorship is censorship by corporations, the sanctioning of speech by spokespersons, employees, and business associates by threat of monetary loss, loss of employment, or loss of access to the marketplace.- TV Guide debate :...

    is the process by which editors in corporate media outlets intervene to halt the publishing of information that portrays their business or business partners in a negative light.

Political censorship



Strict censorship existed in the Eastern Bloc. Throughout the bloc, the various ministries of culture held a tight rein on their writers. Cultural products there reflected the propaganda needs of the state. Party-approved censors exercised strict control in the early years. In the Stalinist period, even the weather forecasts were changed if they had the temerity to suggest that the sun might not shine on May Day
May Day
May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to several public holidays. In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organised by the unions and socialist groups....

. Under Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Andruţă Ceauşescu was a Romanian politician who was the Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, President of the Council of State from 1967, and President of Romania from 1974 to 1989...

 in Romania, weather reports were doctored so that the temperatures were not seen to rise above or fall below the levels which dictated that work must stop.

Independent journalism did not exist in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...

 until Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...

 became its leader; all reporting was directed by the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...

 or related organizations. Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....

, the predominant newspaper in the Soviet Union, had a monopoly. Foreign newspapers were available only if they were published by Communist Parties sympathetic to the Soviet Union.

Possession and use of copying machines was tightly controlled in order to hinder production and distribution of samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet-bloc; individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader, thus building a foundation for the successful resistance of the 1980s...

, illegal self-published
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers. Although it represents a small percentage of the publishing industry in terms of sales, it has been present in one form or another since the beginning of...

 books and magazines. Possession of even a single samizdat manuscript such as a book by Andrei Sinyavsky
Andrei Sinyavsky
Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky was a Russian writer, dissident, gulag survivor, emigrant, Professor of Sorbonne University, magazine founder and publisher...

 was a serious crime which might involve a visit from the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...

. Another outlet for works which did not find favor with the authorities was publishing abroad.

The People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...

, which continues Communist rule in politics, if not in the controlled economy, employs some 30,000 'Internet police' to monitor the internet and popular search engines such as Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google has also...

 and Yahoo
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American public corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, , that provides Internet services worldwide...

.

Iraq
Iraq
Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...

 under Arab socialist Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

 had much the same techniques of press censorship as did Romania under Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Andruţă Ceauşescu was a Romanian politician who was the Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, President of the Council of State from 1967, and President of Romania from 1974 to 1989...

 but with greater potential violence.

Cuban media is operated under the supervision of the Communist Party's
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba is currently the governing political party in Cuba. It is a Marxist-Leninist organization. The present Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the Party to be the "leading force of society and of the state"...

 Department of Revolutionary Orientation, which "develops and coordinates propaganda strategies". Connecting to Internet is illegal.

Critics of the Campaign finance reform
Campaign finance reform
Campaign finance reform is the common term for the political effort in the United States to change the involvement of money in politics, primarily in political campaigns....

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 claim that this reform impose widespread restrictions on political speech.

Censorship of state secrets and prevention of attention




In wartime, explicit censorship is carried out with the intent of preventing the release of information that might be useful to an enemy
Opposing force
An opposing force or enemy force is a military unit tasked with representing an enemy, usually for training purposes in war game scenarios...

. 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 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
World War I
World War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...

 letters written by British soldiers 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. The World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 catchphrase "Loose lips sink ships
British propaganda during World War II
British propaganda during World War II took various forms:-Cinema:"The story of the British cinema in the Second World War is inextricably linked with that of the Ministry of Information." Formed on September 4, 1939, the day after Britain's declaration of war, the Ministry of Information was the...

" was used as a common justification to exercise official wartime censorship and encourage individual restraint when sharing potentially sensitive information.

An example of "sanitization
Sanitization (classified information)
Sanitization is the process of removing sensitive information from a document or other medium, so that it may be distributed to a broader audience. When dealing with classified information, sanitization attempts to reduce the document's classification level, possibly yielding an unclassified...

" policies comes from the USSR
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...

 under Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...

, where publicly used photographs were often altered to remove people whom Stalin had condemned to execution. Though past photographs may have been remembered or kept, this deliberate and systematic alteration to all of history in the public mind is seen as one of the central themes of Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism was the political system and ideology of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1928–1953...

 and totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...

.

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.

Censorship of educational sources


The content of school textbooks is often the issue of debate, since their target audience is young people, and the term "whitewashing" is the one commonly used to refer to selective removal of critical or damaging evidence or comment. The reporting of military atrocities in history
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about an historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...

 is extremely controversial, as in the case of the Bombing of Dresden, the Nanking Massacre
Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on December 9, 1937. During this period, hundreds of thousands of civilians were murdered and 20,000-80,000...

 as found with Japanese history textbook controversies
Japanese history textbook controversies
Japanese history textbook controversies refers to controversial content in government-approved history textbooks used in the secondary education of Japan...

, the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

, The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...

 (or Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the claim that the genocide of Jews during World War II—usually referred to as the Holocaust—did not occur at all, or that it did not happen in the manner or to the extent historically recognized....

), and the Winter Soldier Investigation
Winter Soldier Investigation
The "Winter Soldier Investigation" was a media event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War from January 31, 1971 – February 2, 1971. It was intended to publicize war crimes and atrocities by the United States Armed Forces and their allies in the Vietnam War...

 of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...

.

In the context of secondary-school education, the way facts and history are presented greatly influences the interpretation of contemporary thought, opinion and socialization. One argument for censoring the type of information disseminated is based on the inappropriate quality of such material for the young. The use of the "inappropriate" distinction is in itself controversial, as it changed heavily. A Ballantine Books version of the book Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel authored by Ray Bradbury and first published in 1951.The novel presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic, and critical thought through reading is outlawed. The central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman"...

 which is the version used by most school classes contained approximately 75 separate edits, omissions, and changes from the original Bradbury manuscript.

Censorship in music and popular culture


After Fidel Castro established his communist dictatorship, Che Guevara suggested a ban on jazz and rock & roll, which he saw as "imperialist music".
The original cover of nude Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
, , is a Japanese-American artist and musician. She is known for her marriage to John Lennon and for her work as an avant-garde artist and musician.-Early life:...

 and John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles...

's Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins
Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins is an album released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968. The result of an all-night session of musical experimentation in Lennon's home studio at Kenwood, John and Yoko's debut album is known not only for its avant garde content, but also for its cover...

 provoked an outrage, prompting distributors to sell the album in a plain brown wrapper.

Music censorship has been implemented by states, religions, educational systems, families, retailers and lobbying groups – and in most cases they violate international conventions of human rights.

Aside from the usual justifications of pornography, language and violence, some movies are censored due to changing racial attitudes or political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term denoting language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social offense in gender, racial, cultural, handicap, and age-related usages...

 in order to avoid ethnic stereotyping
Ethnic stereotype
An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group.Ethnic stereotypes are commonly portrayed in ethnic jokes.-Ethnic stereotypes:...

 and/or ethnic offense despite its historical or artistic value. One example is the still withdrawn "Censored Eleven
Censored Eleven
The Censored Eleven is a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons that were withheld from syndication by United Artists in 1968...

" series of animated cartoons, which may be innocent then but "incorrect" now.

Copy, picture, and writer approval


Copy approval is the right to read and amend an article, usually an interview, before publication. Many publications refuse to give copy approval but it is increasingly becoming common practice when dealing with publicity anxious celebrities. Picture approval is the right given to an individual to choose which photos will be published and which will not. Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American film director, actor, producer, businessman, model, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival...

 is well known for insisting upon picture approval. Writer approval is when writers are chosen based on whether they will write flattering articles or not. Hollywood publicist Pat Kingsley is known for banning certain writers who wrote undesirably about one of her clients from interviewing any of her other clients.

Censorship of maps


Censorship of maps was also used in former East Germany, especially for the areas near the border to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...

 in order to make attempts of defection
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...

 more difficult. Censorship of maps is also applied by Google maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...

, where certain areas are greyed out or areas are purposely left out-dated with old imagery.

Meta censorship


In this form of censorship, any information about existence of censorship and the legal basis of the censorship is censored. Rules of censoring were classified. Removed texts or phrases were not marked.

Creative censorship


In this form of censorship, censors rewrite texts, giving these texts secret co-authors. This form of censorship is used in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel, by George Orwell, published in 1949 about the totalitarian régime of the Party, an oligarchical collectivist society where life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, public mind control,...

.

Censorship implementation


The former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...

 maintained a particularly extensive program of state-imposed censorship. The main organ for official censorship in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...

 was the Chief Agency for Protection of Military and State Secrets generally known as the Glavlit
Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press
Main Administration for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the USSR Council of Ministers was the official censorship and state secret protection organ in the Soviet Union. The censorship agency was established in 1922 under the name "Main Administration for Literary and Publishing...

, its Russian acronym. The Glavlit handled censorship matters arising from domestic writings of just about any kind—even beer and vodka labels. Glavlit censorship personnel were present in every large Soviet publishing house or newspaper; the agency employed some 70,000 censors to review information before it was disseminated by publishing houses, editorial offices, and broadcasting studios. No mass medium escaped Glavlits control. All press agencies and radio and television stations had Glavlit representatives on their editorial staffs.
Sometimes, a specific and unique
Uniqueness quantification
In mathematics and logic, the phrase "there is one and only one" is used to indicate that exactly one object with a certain property exists. In mathematical logic, this sort of quantification is known as uniqueness quantification or unique existential quantification.Uniqueness quantification is...

 information whose very existence is barely known to the public, is kept in a subtle, near-censorship situation, being regarded as "subversive
Subversion (politics)
This article is about the political concept. For other uses see Subversion .Subversion refers to an attempt to overthrow structures of authority, including the state. It is an overturning or uprooting...

" or "inconvenient". Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, sociologist and historian. He held a chair at the Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University of California, Berkeley.Foucault is best known for his critical studies of...

's 1978 text "Sexual Morality and the Law
Sexual Morality and the Law
Sexual Morality and the Law is the transcription of a 1978 radio conversation in Paris between philosopher Michel Foucault, playwright/actor/lawyer Jean Danet, and novelist/gay activist Guy Hocquenghem, discussing the abolition of age of consent laws in France.The issue was brought to debate while...

" (later republished as "The Danger of Child Sexuality"), for instance - originally published as La loi de la pudeur [literally, "the law of decency"], defends the decriminalization of statutory rape
Statutory rape
The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual relations that occur when one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior...

 and the abolition of age of consent laws
Age of consent reform

Age of consent reform refers to efforts to change age of consent laws, whether to raise or lower or abolish the age of consent, or to change the ways in which the laws are applied...

.

When a publisher comes under pressure to suppress a book, but has already entered into a contract with the author, they will sometimes effectively censor the book by deliberately ordering a small print run and making minimal, if any, attempts to publicize it. This practice became known in the early 2000s as privishing.

Internet censorship



Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship. One difference is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that bans certain information can find it on website
Website
A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network...

s hosted outside the country. A government can try to prevent its citizens from viewing these even if it has no control over the websites themselves.

Barring total control on Internet-connected computers, such as in North Korea
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...

 and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...

, total censorship of information on the Internet is very difficult (or impossible) to achieve due to the underlying distributed technology of the Internet. Pseudonymity
Pseudonymity
Pseudonymity is a word derived from pseudonym, meaning 'false name', and anonymity, meaning unknown or undeclared source, describing a state of mistaken disguised identity. The pseudonym identifies a holder, that is, one or more human beings who possess but do not disclose their true names...

 and data haven
Data haven
A data haven is a computer or a network that holds data protected from government action by both technical means and location in a country that has either no laws, or poorly-enforced laws restricting use of data and no extradition treaties...

s (such as Freenet
Freenet
Freenet is a decentralized, censorship-resistant distributed data store originally designed by Ian Clarke. Freenet aims to provide freedom of speech through a peer-to-peer network with strong protection of anonymity; as part of supporting its users' freedom, Freenet is free and open source software...

) allow unconditional free speech, as the technology guarantees that material cannot be removed and the author of any information is impossible to link to a physical identity
Digital identity
Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things...

 or organization
Organization
An organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment...

.

In November 2007, "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist who is the "person most often called 'the father of the Internet'."...

 stated that he sees government control of the Internet failing due to private ownership.

See also

  • Book burning
    Book burning
    Book burning is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, one or more copies of a book or other written material. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...

  • Chilling Effect
  • Newspeak
    Newspeak
    Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, it is described as being "the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year". Orwell included an essay about it in the form of an appendix in which the basic principles of the...

  • Self-censorship
    Self-censorship
    Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own work , out of fear or deference to the sensibilities of others without an authority directly pressuring one to do so...

  • Taboo
    Taboo
    A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and forbidden. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. The term comes from the Tongan language, and appears in many Polynesian cultures...

  • Video game censorship


Freedoms:
  • Freedom of the press
    Freedom of the press
    Freedom of the press consists ofconstitutional or statutory protections pertaining to the media and published materials.With respect to governmental information, any government distinguishes which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information...

  • Freedom of speech
    Freedom of speech
    Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

  • Freedom of thought
    Freedom of thought
    Freedom of thought is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints...

  • Scientific freedom
    Scientific freedom
    Scientific freedom is the idea of freedom applied to natural science, in particular the practices of scientific research and discourse, mainly by publication...

  • Academic freedom
    Academic freedom
    Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Still, academic freedom...


General information



  • 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
    University of South Florida
    The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, and is a public research university located in Tampa, Florida, USA, with an autonomous campus in St. Petersburg, and branch centers in Sarasota and Lakeland...

    , December 1987. ED 308 864
  • Burress, Lee. Battle of the Books. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1989. ED 308 508
  • Butler, Judith
    Judith Butler
    Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is the Maxine Elliott professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.Butler...

    , "Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative" (1997)
  • Foucault, Michel
    Michel Foucault
    Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, sociologist and historian. He held a chair at the Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University of California, Berkeley.Foucault is best known for his critical studies of...

    , edited by Lawrence D. Kritzman.
    Philosophy, Culture: interviews and other writings 1977–1984 (New York/London: 1988, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-90082-4) (The text Sexual Morality and the Law is Chapter 16 of the book).
  • O'Reilly, Robert C. and Larry Parker. "Censorship or Curriculum Modification?" Paper presented at a School Boards Association, 1982, 14 p. ED 226 432
  • Hansen, Terry. The Missing Times: News media complicity in the UFO cover-up, 2000. ISBN 0-7388-3612-5
  • Hendrikson, Leslie. "Library Censorship: ERIC Digest No. 23." ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, Boulder, Colorado, November 1985. ED 264 165
  • Hoffman, Frank. "Intellectual Freedom and Censorship." Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1989. ED 307 652
  • Marek, Kate. "Schoolbook Censorship USA." June 1987. ED 300 018
  • National Coalition against Censorship (NCAC). "Books on Trial: A Survey of Recent Cases." January 1985. ED 258 597
  • Ringmar, Erik A Blogger's Manifesto: Free Speech and Censorship in the Age of the Internet (London: Anthem Press, 2007)
  • 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.

  • Terry, John David II. "Censorship: Post Pico." In "School Law Update, 1986," edited by Thomas N. Jones and Darel P. Semler. ED 272 994
  • Supreme Court rejects advocates' plea to preserve useful formats
  • World Book Encyclopedia
    World Book Encyclopedia
    The World Book Encyclopedia, published in the United States, is self-described as the "the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world." The encyclopedia is designed to cover major areas of knowledge uniformly, but it shows particular strength in some fields. It is based in Chicago,...

    , volume 3 (C-Ch), pages 345, 346