Censorship+in+the+World+Today

= Censorship in the World Today =

Introduction to Censorship
Over centuries, governments and societies have prevented certain books from being read by their people. Censorship can include everything from books being banned by Popes in the 16th Century and Hilter's book burning. Even Plato believed in censorship: “Our first business will be to supervise the making of fables and legends; rejecting all which are unsatisfactory…” [| The American Library Association has figured that the reasons for the book challenges tend to fall in one of four categories:] “Without free speech no search for truth is possible… no discovery of truth is useful… Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.” -Charles Bradlaugh
 * Family values
 * Religion
 * Political views
 * Minority rights

Internet Censorship
[|Governments are now even trying to control what's written on the internet.] Internet censorship has become a new worldwide issue as repressive regimes like China, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea severely try to restrict what their citizens view online. Meanwhile, other governments follow Australia's lead in attempt to control what children see to protect them from questionable content on the Internet. However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is an outspoken U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is an outspoken advocate for Internet freedom around the world and stresses that everyone should have equal access to knowledge and ideas.

She has compared the freedom of internet to basic human rights such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Having the freedom to connect to the Internet, she said, [|"is like the freedom of assembly, only in cyberspace.][|"]

**Chinese Censorship**
[| Through some research, I present to you a few books that China has banned and why:]
 * //Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland// by Lewis Carroll in 1931 because of it showed animals acting as intelligent as human beings.
 * //Wild Swans// by Jung Chang in the late ’90s. I’ve read this book and can say for myself how powerful some of the stories in it are. It tells the story of the author’s life, her mother’s life, and her grandmother’s life. This covers a vast section of modern Chinese history and I suppose the government of China was insulted by some of the things it said. That, or they were afraid of awareness of their wrongdoings being spread which could spark revolts.

China seems to ban all books that give personal accounts of the Chinese Revolution, that have somewhat of a feminist outlook, that include drug references, that call out on the propaganda, that include any sexual content whatsoever, or just say anything negative about any government China has ever had.

Below is the following interview interview with [|Beryl Leach], a woman who has traveled extensively across China for years and was the coordinator for Health Action International, Africa, an organization part of the United Nations Millennium Project.

// China is an extraordinarily diverse and very large country. While its main cities, such as Shanghai and HK, are among the world's most advanced, it is possible to find illiterate peasants that still follow a lunar calendar in the isolated regions. Although change is coming at lightening speed in China, only 15 years ago, it was was possible to drive for three hours outside of Beijing and find villages where there was no electricity and non mechanized farming. The "feel" of Shanghai is not very different now from HK, although 20 years ago there was a much larger difference. The main reason for the change in Shanghai, and growing similarity, is down to economic development that required an opening up to the West. // // The feel of large cities in western China are very different from those in the eastern part of the country for historical, geographical and economic reasons. The differences are definitely not down to censorship. //
 * How different does the rest of China feel in comparison to Hong Kong? Do you think the government's censorship has contributed to the differences?**

// I do not mean to downplay the importance of censorship as a tool for managing the political climate and room for public debate and participation. But censorship that has had the most immediate impact on people's daily lives has more often concerned natural or human-made disasters and public health threats. For example, the government has been slow to learn that allowing reporting of major earthquakes and problems encountered in responding to it can help to save lives and alleviate suffering in the aftermath. In the case of SARS, initial denial and non-cooperation with global efforts to track its spread and contain it were exposed internationally as an international threat, leading the government to become more open and integrated in the global SARS response. In the case of HIV, a scandal concerning infected blood transfusions was covered up and then not reported for a long time, contributing to needless deaths and suffering. The economic boom has generated a lot of pollution, yet reporting on toxic discharges and spills, some of which have been numerous deaths, remains a challenge for media. // // It depends on whom you ask. I have dealt mainly with scientists, who are not politically engaged, and do not want to be. They can access the books that interest them and use the internet freely. The politically active, for example, human rights activists, are monitored, as well as not being able to access sites that the government has deemed off limits. They deal with the threat and frustration of state surveillence and censorship daily. In general, it's not a problem, until it is. And then, I find that the Chinese, generally speaking in my experience, do not see political restrictions in black and white terms. Stability is valued highly. //
 * How do you think the people China feel about book and internet censorship?**

// No. //
 * Do you believe that most of China's population is aware of how censored their media is?**

**The Catholic Church's Bans**
[|After the Catholic Church rejected //The Da Vinci Code// by Dan Brown, Catholic Lebanese leaders called for the book to be banned because of its speculation that Christ married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child.] [| Security officials specifically demanded that bookstore owners pull the French, English and Arabic copies off their shelves.] Before the ban, the book had been a best seller in the country. Reportedly, Father Abdou Abu Kasm, the president of Lebanon’s Catholic Information Center, called the book “insulting” because of its depiction of Christ’s relationship with Mary Magdalene.

Although Lebanon was the only country to ban the book, Christians all over the world were deeply upset about its contents.

I read //The Da Vinci Code// a few years ago. The initial reason why it interested me was the deep analysis of some of the most famous paintings in the world. Although I respect Dan Brown’s intellectual curiosity, I don’t respect //The Da Vinci Code.// However, my reasons hold no loyalty to the Christian faith. That book just appeals to our desire for dirty gossip. Especially dirty gossip that defies what cultures have believed for centuries. We’re so engrossed in that exciting and intriguing gossip that we don’t care that it hasn’t been fully researched.

It’s just like a rumor you’d hear in middle school. If the rumor is juicy enough, such as Mike kissed Julie, then you don’t want to hear that’s not true. That would just ruin all the fun.

Dan Brown’s book should absolutely not be banned. I’m glad it’s gotten people thinking about the origins and truth in the Christian faith, but I don’t approve of its narrow mindedness in the slightest. It’s discouraging other hypotheses and ideas on the history.

Censorship in Iran
[|The Iran government ordered the closing of a daily newspaper, Asia.] With that, they banned a planned women's publication in the first media crackdown since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August. No reasons were given. However, a journalist at Asia said the paper had been given a warning in recent months for printing photographs of women considered to have been improperly dressed.

Ahmad Alavi, an Iranian lecturer at Stockholm University, said that that Asia was likely shut down on August 18 for divulging too much information. He said [|"the information given by this newspaper would show the inefficiency of [the Iranian government and, as we know, the inefficiency of the government undermines the legitimacy of the government."]]

According to Radio Free Europe, Iran has one of the worst records in the world for banning newspapers and other publications and for imprisoning journalists.

Censorship in Cuba
[|In a celebrated address to Cuban writers union, Fidel Castro stated that his policy on the freedom of conscience and] [|creativity was ample, generous, distinctive, but limited.] However, the contradiction has resolved itself. The Cuban government has been watching over Havana's publishing houses closely. As a result, authors like Padilla have fled the country and stimulating newspapers like Revolution have suffered. When Karl Marx was an editor of the Rheinische Zeitung he published some very influential essays on the stupidity of censorship. It used to be the fashion of Parisian Stalinists to say that this was just the immature, "humanist" Marx. The Cuban comrades are now challenging Marx. According to them, Cuba "is fighting for socialism and communism, and therefore publications like these do not correspond with our reality or interests and are not for us."

**Censorship in the United States**
[|“Almost every country places some restrictions on what may be published, although the emphasis and the degree of control differ from country to country and at different periods.”] As I’ve been searching the internet for the past hour, I’ve found several stories about various books being banned by governments and religions. A few of those banned books were even banned in the United States, the land of the free. Those have included:
 * //New English Canaan// by Thomas Morton because it held too much sympathy towards the Native Americans and the British.
 * //The Grapes of Wrath// by John Steinbeck was also banned in the United States for a period. This was because it portrayed the people in a region of California poorly.
 * //Operation Dark Heart// by Anthony Shaffer published just this year . It’s about the inner workings of the American intelligence agencies in Afghanistan. The first, uncensored printing was purchased and destroyed by the Pentagon in its entirety, and a second, censored printing was released in September.

Langston Hughes, an American poet, wrote a poem entitles "Democracy" that directly exemplifies how Americans feel about their rights:

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The line “I do not need my freedom when I’m dead” hit me fairly hard. It made me realize how often I’ve heard people say (or even thought myself) that some problems can’t be solved in just one generation, and that it really takes time for people to develop and change their ways. I stumbled back upon this poem while looking around at freedom of speech articles specifically about censorship. It showed me again the powerful desire that so many of us have to change society and receive all of their human rights. It’s all very American. It’s all very individualistic.