"Censorship is fear"



Censorship is the control of speech, and other forms of human expression, often by (but not limited to) government intervention. The ostensible motive of censorship is to stabilize or improve the society over which the government would have control. It is most commonly applied to acts that occur in public circumstances, and most formally involves suppression of ideas (by criminalizing or regulating expression). Futhermore, discussion of censorship often includes less formal means of controlling perceptions by excluding various ideas from mass communication. What is censored may range from specific words to entire concepts and it may be influenced by value systems.



Sanitization (removal) and whitewashing (from whitewash) are almost interchangeable terms that refer to a particular form of censorship via omission, which seeks to "clean up" the portrayal of particular issues and facts that are already known, but which may conflict with the official point of view. Some consider political correctness to be related, as a socially-imposed (rather than governmentally imposed) type of restriction, which, if taken to extremes, may qualify as self-censorship.



"Censorship" comes from the Latin word "censor." In Rome, the censor had two duties, to count the citizens and to supervise their morals. The term "census" is also derived from this word.



An early published reference to the term "whitewash" dates back to 1762 in a Boston Evening Post article. In 1800 the word was used publicly in a political context, when a Philadelphia Aurora editorial said that "if you do not whitewash President Adams speedily, the Democrats, like swarms of flies, will bespatter him all over, and make you both as speckled as a dirty wall, and as black as the devil."



The word "sanitization" is a euphemism commonly used in the political context of propaganda to refer to the doctoring of information that might otherwise be perceived as incriminating, self-contradictory, controversial, or damaging. Censorship, as compared to acts or policies of sanitization, more often refers to a publicly set standard, not a privately set standard. However, censorship is often alleged when an essentially private entity, such as a corporation, regulates access to information in a communication forum that serves a significant share of the public. Official censorship might occur at any jurisdictional level within a state or nation that otherwise represents itself as opposed to formal censorship.



In England, censorship began with the introduction of copyright laws, which gave the Crown the permission to license publishing. Without government approval, printing was not allowed. It is sometimes called prior restraint when a court or other governmental body prevents a person from speaking or publishing. This is sometimes viewed as worse than punishment after someone speaks, as in libel suits.



Censorship can be explicit, as in laws passed to prevent select positions from being published or propagated (as in the People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, and Australia, where certain Internet pages are not permitted entry), or it can be implicit, taking the form of intimidation by government, where people are afraid to express or support certain opinions for fear of losing their jobs, their position in society, their credibility, or even their lives. In this latter form it is similar to McCarthyism.



The rationale for censorship is different for various types of data censored. There are four main types:



* Moral censorship is material that contains questionable ethics. The censoring body disapproves of the values behind the material and limits access to it. An example is pornography.

* Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential and away from the enemy. This is used to counter espionage, which is the process of gleaning military information.

* Political censorship occurs when governments conceal secrets from their citizens. The logic is to prevent the free expression needed to revolt. Democracies do not officially approve political censorship but often endorse it during wars. Any dissent against the government is thought to be a weakness; for the enemy to exploit. Campaign tactics are also kept secret: see the Watergate scandal.

* Religious censorship is the means by which any material objectionable to a certain faith is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on smaller ones. Alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their faith.



For nearly the entire history of film and movie production, certain films have been either boycotted by political and religious groups or literally banned by a regime for political or moral reasons. Paradoxically, banning a movie often completely fails to achieve its intention of preventing a movie from being seen;the publicity given worldwide to banned movies often results in it being given attention it might not otherwise receive.



With the advent of the Internet, the ability of groups or governments to ban a film is hindered. High-speed Internet access and better file compression give more people access to digital copies of movies that might not be available for viewing in theaters.



Many governments have commissions to censor and/or rate productions for film and television exhibition. From a government standpoint, the censoring of films is more effective than banning, because it limits the scope of potentially dangerous or subversive cinema without overtly limiting freedom of speech.



In the United States, there has never been national censorship. However, currently the motion picture industry maintains the MPAA Ratings, which are issued to individual films submitted to the MPAA as a means of identifying those with content not considered suitable for children and/or teenagers. The MPAA system is purely voluntary, for both movie makers and theaters. However, almost all theaters in the U.S. use the MPAA system, and many will refuse to show films which are unrated. From 1930 to 1964 film censorship boards did exist on state and/or local levels in some venues in the USA. The MPAA attempted to satisfy requirements of these disparate boards by creating films the Motion Picture Production Code in the late 1920s, another voluntary system designed and implemented by the MPAA. Films were either approved or not under the Code, and those that were generally had little or no problems passing muster with state or local censors.



* 1908: The James Boys in Missouri and Night Riders, banned in Chicago

* 1915: The Birth of a Nation banned in several American cities.

* 1926: The Crimson Kimono, based on a real-life Chicago murder case and political scandal, banned in Chicago.

* 1928: The Racket banned in Chicago.

* 1931: Frankenstein banned in Kansas.

* 1932: Freaks banned in Cleveland.

* 1967: Titicut Follies, distribution blocked by legal order, 1967-1992.

* 1987: Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, banned by court order

* 1994: Conspiracy of Silence, banned by court order

* 2002: The Profit, legal injunction preventing exhibition: April 2002-present



Censorship of music, the practice of censoring music from the public, may take the form of partial or total censorship with the latter banning the music entirely. The music in question may be a song, or part thereof, a collection of songs (such as a particular album) or a genre of music.



While songs and albums have been banned in the past it has become less common in western countries. However, the censorship of particular words deemed as profanity is still commonplace.



A classic example of partial censorship in the UK is the single "God Save the Queen", by the Sex Pistols, released by Virgin Records on May 27th, 1977. The sale of this single, that coincided with the Queen's silver jubilee celebrations, was not banned. However, the track was barred for airplay on BBC's Radio 1, then the most popular radio channel in the UK. This public service broadcaster censored this single, that reached Number 2 in the charts, because of its lyrics. It is rumoured that the single actually reached Number 1, but that this was suppressed in a further act of censorship. The band was harrassed by police while performing the song on a boat on the Thames. See the entry for Sid Vicious and god save the queen, on the Sex pistols page.



"God save the Queen, this is a fascist regime."



This act of censorship merely confirmed the attitude of the singer.



Another song famously banned by Radio 1 was "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1983 because the lyrics "when you're gonna come" were seen to refer to the climax of the sexual act. In a famous incident Radio 1 disc jockey Mike Read took the record off the turntable and broke it in two. After this, but without consulting Read, Radio 1 decided to ban the record. As a result the record went straight to number one, where it stayed for five weeks.



1981, the International Year of Disabled People, saw the BBC ban Ian Dury's "Spasticus Autisticus" until after dark. Drury, who himself had suffered from polio, had written the song as a positive message for people with disabilities. The chorus' refrain, "I'm spasticus, autisticus", was inspired by the response of the rebelling gladiators of Rome who (at least in the version of the story as portrayed in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus), all answered to the name of their leader, "I am Spartacus", to protect him.



The Beastie Boys received mass publicity when they arrived in the UK in 1987. Headline stories of their activities in bars and hotel rooms, along with a tour containing dancers in cages and a large inflatable penis, led to massive sales of their "Fight for your Right to Party". The video, showing the three members of the band invade and trash a party, was subsequently banned by Top of the Pops due to its portrayal of "loutish behaviour".



In order to allow songs to be played wherever possible it is common to censor particular words, particularly profanity. Some labels produce censored versions themselves, sometimes with alternative lyrics, to comply with the rules set by various radio and television programmes. Some channels decide to censor them themselves using one of four methods:



* Blanking; when the volume is set to zero for all or part of the word

* Bleeping; playing a noise, usually a "bleep", over all or part of the word

* Resampling; using a like-sounding portion of vocals and music to override the offending word

* Backmasking; simply taking the offending word and reversing the audio. Sometimes the whole audio is reversed, most times only the vocal track is reversed.



The censorship of some of the less common swear words or obvious innuendo may differ between channels. The word ho in Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For" was censored by some channels (for example MTV) while not by others (such as BBC Radio 1). Also the Stefani's song Hollaback Girl, where the word shit is repeated over 20 times, got heavly censored on English-speaking countries, and surprisingly, also on the Brazilian radios (as an ironic way to criticise the censorship on English-speaking world). Likewise some channels censored the line "keep her coming every night" in Maroon 5's "This Love" because of the inference of the word cuming, a term for sexual climax.



Some words are censored not through their sexual or offensive nature but for other reasons. The 2001 release Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus had the word gun censored by some channels; it was felt that the line "he took a gun to school" was inappropriate. Some channels also censored 2003's Gay Bar by Electric Six, removing the word war from the sentence "Let's start a war; start a nuclear war".



Music censorship is mainly focused on the words or lyrics, that contain explicit content such as:Violence, Sex, Homicide, Suicide, Substance abuse, etc. An example of lyric censorship is: Rising Goth Rockers, My Chemical Romance with their 2004 album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge,was given a R.I.A.A label without having more than One Bad Word. Lyrics include:"Gimme all Your Poison, and Gimme All Your Pills, and Gimme All Your Hopeless Hearts and Make me ill" From their song 'Thank You For The Venom' having relation with substance abuse.



Some artists or record labels choose to censor themselves in order to avoid negative publicity. This is sometimes due to the timing of events outside of their control, such as how the September 11, 2001 attacks affected audiovisual entertainment. The release and subsequent advertising of Michael Jackson's greatest hits album was delayed until after his 2005 trial; it is not known if a guilty verdict would have further changed the timing of the release.





This page was last modified 02:33, 13 February 2006.

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