Censorship

In the strict sense, censorship refers to government suppression of specific ideas, forms of expression, or speakers. Private corporations, media conglomerates, schools, and even individuals can effectively suppress speech as well, even though this is not censorship in the technical sense. In ancient Rome, the "censor" was a high public official who, among other duties, controlled public morals. Official censors still exist in some places, while elsewhere more subtle forms of censorship are practiced. Certain subjects have been regular targets of censorship, particularly those involving sex, politics, and religion, singly or in combination.

sexual content

The Athenian playwright Aristophanes (450–388 b.c.e.) had his plays banned in the fifth century b.c.e., in part because of obscenity. In 1818 Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825) published a "family edition" of Shakespeare (1564–1616), which he edited in order to omit any sexually-related content. In 1872 Anthony Comstock (1844–1915) and the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice campaigned successfully to censor information about sex and reproduction, resulting in the passage of the Comstock laws in 1873. Particularly after World War II (1939–1945), pornography—considered tasteless and degrading by some and sinful and depraved by others—became the target of censorship efforts in the United States.

Sex education was one of the first victims of the censorship of sexual content. Under the Comstock laws, Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) was arrested and jailed in 1916 for distributing information about birth control. In the early twenty-first century, censorship of sex education persisted in the United States in public school programs, with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 promoting "a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage [as] the expected standard of human sexual activity," and excluding information inconsistent with this message.

The American Library Association regularly reports on efforts to remove material with sexual scenes or references from classrooms and school libraries, including The Diary of Anne Frank (1947), Russell Banks' novel Continental Drift (1985), Sophie's Choice (1979) by William Styron, and Seventeen magazine, because an advice column answers questions about sex.

In the United States, "indecent" sexual content has long been banned on network television and radio. Unlike obscenity, which is legally defined as material that 1) is patently offensive, 2) appeals solely to the prurient interest, and 3) lacks scientific, historical, literary, or other value, indecency is a vague and subjective term that varies depending on the government official applying it.

Even though the United States does not ban sexual content in films, the mainstream film industry adopted its own restrictions, first under the Hays Code and later through the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system. Because the rating affects distribution, filmmakers have a financial incentive to tailor their films to obtain the desired rating, which often means that sexual scenes are edited out for U.S. audiences.

the comstock act

In 1873 the U.S. Congress passed an anti-obscenity statute known as the Comstock Act. It is an unmistakable example of state-sponsored censorship and the legal imposition of cultural values.

Called the Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles for Immoral Use, the law made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent or disgusting" literature through the mail. Pamphlets discussing contraceptives were deemed obscene and barred from distribution through the mail. It also became a federal offense to distribute birth control through the postal service or across state lines.

The act was named after Anthony Comstock (1844–1915), a leader of the New York Committee for the Suppression of Vice. Comstock was appointed a special agent for the postal service and was given the right to seize mail he deemed obscene. Local postmasters were granted this power as well.

Following passage of the federal act, many states enacted their own Comstock laws. In Connecticut, for instance, it became illegal to possess contraceptives and married couples were subject to arrest for using birth control in their own homes. Though portions of the laws were slowly repealed, remnants remained on the books well into the 1990s.

Pornography is protected in the United States, unless it can be proven obscene by the standards of the state. Internationally, however, it is one of the most frequently banned forms of sexual expression. It was censored throughout Eastern Europe until the dissolution of the Soviet bloc ; it is banned in many Arab countries; and is strictly regulated elsewhere. In spite of attempts at regulation, the Internet provides increased access to this ubiquitous yet controversial type of expression.

political speech

Since Confucius's (551–479 b.c.e.) writings were burned around 250 b.c.e., when a new dynasty came to power, rulers have tried to squelch political criticism, dissent, and alternative belief systems deemed essential to their hegemony .

Nazi Germany provides perhaps the most infamous example of a regime that openly embraced censorship as a way to advance its philosophy and goals. Press censorship, restricted access to information, and propaganda were used to manipulate public opinion. Books were burned if they were deemed to "act subversively on our future or strike at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people" (Green 1990, p. 30). Jews and communists were considered "racially inferior" and "politically unsound," and their works were banned; artwork by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Paul Klee (1879–1940), Marc Chagall (1887–1985), Edvard Munch (1863–1944), Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), and others was condemned as the "products of morbid and perverted minds" (Green 1990, pp. 106–107).

The Nazi regime may have been most extreme in its use of censorship, but it was hardly alone. Suppression of political speech in the former Soviet Union was legendary, ensnaring luminaries such as Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918).

In Zimbabwe, music censorship chokes off a culturally important avenue of peaceful political protest, and in China, Indonesia, Singapore, and many other countries, restrictions on Internet access may be enforced through criminal sentences. Dozens of reporters are killed around the world each year, some because of where they are reporting, others for what they are reporting.

Censorship is a common response to calls for economic, political, and social change, as advocates frequently learned. In the United States Emma Goldman (1869–1940), a well-known radical, went to jail for encouraging unemployed workers to demonstrate, as did Eugene Debs (1855–1926), who protested against World War I (1914–1918). Later, the infamous "cointelpro," or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) counterintelligence program, was created by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972) to infiltrate groups promoting peace and civil rights, and search for subversives. Notwithstanding these setbacks, protesters—from suffragettes to union organizers to "women's lib" and gay pride marchers—ultimately achieved many of their goals, demonstrating the close link between civil liberties and civil rights.

Nonetheless, underlying sociocultural tensions over rights issues periodically erupt in censorship disputes. Books such as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) continue to be attacked for the use of racial epithets, and books such as Lesléa Newman's Heather Has Two Mommies (1989) are repeated subjects of criticism for representing same-sex relationships in a positive light.

Suppression of political dissent resurfaced in the United States after the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. Press access to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq was restricted, and unclassified information was deleted from libraries and government websites. College and university faculty have been disciplined for criticizing the government, and the University of North Carolina was attacked for assigning a book on the Qur'an. The FBI investigated a college student with an antiwar poster and a gallery containing antiwar art, while the Pentagon banned press photographs of coffins holding the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Political censorship in the United States has not been confined strictly to the political arena, however. In 2004 some 4,000 scientists—including 48 Nobel laureates, 62 recipients of the National Medal of Science, and 127 members of the National Academy of Sciences—issued a statement protesting government misrepresentation of scientific fact. The scientists' statement accused the government of using the distortion for political gain, depriving the public of key information.

religion

In 399 b.c.e., Socrates (470–399 b.c.e.) was convicted for his religious beliefs and corrupting youth; he was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. In the Middle Ages (c.e. 500–1500), the Talmud was burned throughout Europe. In 1535 William Tyndale (1494–1536) was burned at the stake for translating the Bible from Latin into English. The Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist Galileo (1564–1642) had his books burned because his theories conflicted with Catholic Church dogma; in 1633 he was forced to recant and placed under house arrest. Finally, the Index Liborum Prohibitorum ("Index of Forbidden Books"), which identified books the Catholic Church considered immoral or heretical , existed from 1571 to 1965.

In modern times, the fatwa, or decree, issued by Iranian religious leaders against writer Salman Rushdie over The Satanic Verses (1988), reflecting the clash between fundamentalism and secular intellectual Islam, threatened his life and required him to go into hiding. In France, the novelist Michel Houellebecq (b. 1958) was tried for inciting religious hatred by expressing negative views about Islam. The Taliban in Afghanistan banned television, music, and film in its campaign against modernity; violation of its edicts could result in death. In Bangladesh, Taslima Nasrin (b. 1962) has been the repeated target of censorship and death threats for her feminist views, which are seen as anti-Islamic.

Religiously motivated efforts by some private groups seeking to impose censorship are prominent in the United States as well. This is evident in the protests of the early twenty-first century against the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, Terrence McNally's play Corpus Christi (1999), and The Holy Virgin Mary, a 1996 painting by Turner-award-winning artist Chris Ofili. Other attacks focus on sexual conduct that is inconsistent with religious beliefs. For example, Tony Kushner's Pulitzer-prize-winning play Angels in America (1993) and Terrence McNally's play Corpus Christi both deal with same-sex relationships.

conclusion

Around the world and across time, people have recognized the dehumanizing effects of censorship. The Roman Cicero (106 b.c.e.–43 b.c.e.) likened the lack of freedom of expression to slavery. To the Dutch philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza (1632–1677), "everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts" (Spinoza 1670, Chapter XVIII, line 42). The risk censorship creates for learning and knowledge also is acknowledged by the English philosopher Milton (1608–1674): "hee who destroyes a good Booke, kills reason it selfe," (Milton 1644) and by the Chinese proverb, "A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood."

Legal protection against censorship was first adopted in 1791, in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which remains a model for much of the world. It reads: "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." While some speech is not protected (e.g., threats and intimidation, incitement to imminent violence, libel, slander, defamation, and obscenity), the First Amendment is designed to ensure that government does not control the "market place of ideas." Later, in 1948, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights offered protection for "the right to freedom of thought [and] conscience" (Article 18). As history reveals, however, legal protections are necessary but not sufficient to counter censorship. In addition, people must understand, claim, and exercise the right to free expression.

See also: Freedom of Expression; Freedom of Information; Freedom of the Press; Freedom of Religion and the State; Freedom of Religion, Foundations; Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

bibliography

Bald, Margaret. Banned Books, Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds. New York: Facts on File, 1998.

Green, Jonathon. The Encyclopedia of Censorship. New York: Facts on File, 1990.

Heins, Marjorie. Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy: A Guide to America's Censorship Wars. New York: The New Press, 1993.

Hentoff, Nat. Living the Bill of Rights, How to Be an Authentic American. New York: Harper Collins, Publishers, 1998.

Ingelhart, Louis Edward. Press and Speech Freedoms in America, 1619–1995: A Chronology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Jones, Derek, ed. Censorship, a World Encyclopedia, vols. 1–4. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001.

Milton, John. Areopagitica (1644). Eugene: The University of Oregon, 1997. <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/areopagitica.html>.

Murphy, Paul L. The Constitution in Crisis Times, 1918–1969. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1972.

Spinoza, Benedictus de. A Theologico-Political Treatise (1670). http://www.philosophyarchive.com/text.php?era=1600–1699&author=Spinoza&text=A%20Theologico-Political%20Treatise%20ChapterXVIII.

Joan E. Bertin