(To What Extent) Is censorship Defendable?

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(To What Extent) Is censorship Defendable?

• Croatia, Zagreb IB
• Made by Merve Demirbas, Valnea Skansi, Toni
  Nogolica

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Censorship and its forms

• Censorship takes many forms the more obvious
  issues like religion, morality and military
  politics are the easiest to spot and deal with.

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By definition

• Censorship by religion is defined as the act of
  suppressing views that are contrary of those of
  an organized religion. It 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.
• It is a form of censorship where freedom of
  expression is controlled or limited using
  religious authority.
• This form of censorship is practiced in many
  societies, by many religions.

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Early History

• Censorship and the ideology supporting it go back
  to ancient times. Every society has had customs,
  taboos, or laws by which speech, play, dress,
  religious observance, and sexual expression were
  regulated.

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Greek vs. Roman Censorship

• In Athens, where democracy first flourished,
  Socrates
• preferred to sacrifice his life rather than
  accept censorship of his teachings
• defended free discussion as a supreme public
  service.
• formulated a philosophy of intellectual freedom.
• Ironically, his disciple Plato was the
  first philosopher to formulate a rationale for
  intellectual, religious, and artistic censorship.
  
• In the 5th century bc, the Athenian philosopher
  Anaxagoras was punished for impiety Protagoras,
  another leading philosopher, was charged with
  blasphemy, and his books were burned.
• These instances of repression and persecution in
  Athens were not truly typical of Greek democracy,
  for usually the freedom to speak openly in
  private or in the assembly was respected.

• In Rome only people in authority enjoyed the
  privilege of speaking freely.
• Public prosecution and punishment occurred
  frequently.
• The Roman poets Ovid and Juvenal were both
  banished.
• Authors of seditious or scurrilous utterances or
  writings were punished.
• The emperor Caligula, for example, ordered an
  offending writer to be burned alive, and Nero
  deported his critics and burned their books.
• The far-flung Roman Empire lasted for some four
  centuries due to maintaining a policy of
  toleration toward the many religions and cults of
  the diverse nations and races it ruled.
• The only demand made was that Roman citizens, as
  a political act, worship the imperial person or
  image beyond that, all citizens were free to
  worship their own gods and to observe their own
  rites and rituals.
• To Jews and early Christians, however, emperor or
  image worship was idolatry, and they refused to
  obey. They were persecuted and frequently
  martyred for their religious beliefs.

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Church Censorship

• Roman Catholic vs. Protestant Censorship

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Roman Catholic vs. Protestant

• -Books or sermons that were opposed to
  orthodox faith or morals were prohibited.
• -Their authors were punished.
• -The first catalog of forbidden books was
  issued by Pope Gelasius in 496.
• -Individual heretical books were
  subsequently forbidden by special papal edicts.
• Censorship in this period was concerned primarily
  with suppressing heresy.
• For the purpose of punishing all such
  manifestations, Pope Gregory IX instituted the
  Inquisition in 1231.
• For almost 500 years the Inquisition remained an
  influential agency of religious censorship.

• The Protestant Reformation did not itself erect a
  change in the practice of censorship.
• Its leadersamong them John Calvin, John Knox,
  and Martin Lutherclaimed liberty of conscience
  and toleration only for themselves and their
  followers.
• When in power, they too attempted to suppress all
  deviation from their own brands of orthodoxy
  they persecuted Protestant heretics and Roman
  Catholics.
• The English poet John Milton protested against
  such censorship in his classic essay Areopagitica
  (1644).
• Many English people associated licensing by
  church censors with ecclesiastical supervision,
  the Inquisition, and restraints on religion,
  education, and intellectual pursuits.

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Censorship in the Modern World

• The 18th centurya beginning that reflects the
  influence of the Age of Enlightenment and the
  American and French revolutions.
• Although the new spirit of liberty was first felt
  in the area of religious belief, it rapidly
  affected political life, science, and literature.
  The United States, France, and England set the
  pattern and the pace. The Declaration of
  Independence (1776), the U.S. Constitution (1787)
  with its Bill of Rights (1789-1791), and the
  French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
  the Citizen (1789) became models for the modern
  world.
• In England Roman Catholics were freed of all
  disabilities in 1829 Jews achieved the same
  freedom in 1858.

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Religious Toleration

• In modern democratic countries, certain basic
  constitutional principles are generally accepted
• A person's religious beliefs and forms of worship
  are matters of strictly private conscience, into
  which no government act or official may intrude
• No religious requirements may be stipulated for
  any public office or benefit and the state and
  religion are independent of each other.
• The principles have established peaceful
  relations between the government and religious
  systems in truly democratic societies.
• Exceptions
• The situation was quite different in Communist
  countries such as the USSR, where religion was
  not at all, or only grudgingly, recognized, and
  atheism was the established ideology.
• Another exception is the kind of theocracy
  established in Iran after the 1979 revolution
  with the institution of an Islamic republic.

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Government Censorship

• In England religious conflict bred general
  intolerance, which resulted in censorship that
  embraced political as well as religious
  expression. At a time when religion dominated
  society, every aspect of life was necessarily
  subject to official control.
• In 1662, for instance, a licensing act created a
  surveyor of the press who had power to
  investigate and suppress unauthorized
  publications.
• The Toleration Act and the Bill of Rights in 1689
  dealt with important personal liberties but said
  nothing about freedom from censorship. To publish
  an unfavorable opinion of the government was
  still a seditious libel.
• As the 18th century began, however, English
  newspapers became more numerous, books on a
  greater variety of subjects were published, and
  arbitrary censorship was slowly reduced.
• Freedom of the press came about gradually as a
  result of judicial decisions and popular
  opposition to political oppression.

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Private Action

• One U.S. industry, the film industry, has for
  many years practiced a form of self-censorship. A
  system of film classification was begun in 1968
  in which films were given ratings, as G (general
  audiences), PG(parental guidance advised),
  PG-13(may not be suitable for preteens), R(under
  age 17 not admitted unless accompanied by
  parent), NC-17(under age 17 not admitted).
• In the U.S. many different private groups attempt
  to influence government agencies, businesses,
  libraries, radio and television broadcasters,
  newspapers, and other communications media to
  suppress material that they consider
  objectionable. Religious, ethnic, and racial
  groups have tried to prevent plays, movies, and
  television programs from being presented because
  of elements they deem offensive.

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It is based on

• Religious censorship is usually performed on the
  grounds of blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege or
  impiety the censored work being viewed as
  obscene, violating a religious taboo.

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Until recently

• In modern times, censorship refers to the
  examination of books, periodicals, plays, films,
  television and radio programs, news reports, and
  other communication media for the purpose of
  altering or suppressing parts thought to be
  objectionable or offensive.

• Until recently, censorship was firmly established
  in various institutional forms in even the most
  advanced democratic societies.
• By the mid-20th century, a revolutionary change
  in social attitudes weakened its existence,
  however, not all forms of censorship have been
  eliminated universally.

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Censorship In Islam Jyllands-Posten Muhammad
cartoons controversy

• The controversial cartoons of Muhammad, as they
  were first published in Jyllands-Posten in
  September 2005 (English version). The headline,
  "Muhammad's ansigt", means "The face of Muhammad".

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That cartoon

• The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
  began after twelve editorial cartoons, most of
  which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were
  published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
  on 30 September 2005. The newspaper announced
  that this publication was an attempt to
  contribute to the debate regarding criticism of
  Islam and self-censorship.
• Danish Muslim organizations, who objected to the
  depictions, responded by holding public protests
  attempting to raise awareness of
  Jyllands-Posten's publication. Further examples
  of the cartoons were soon reprinted in newspapers
  in more than fifty other countries, further
  deepening the controversy.
• This led to protests across the Muslim world,
  some of which escalated into violence with police
  firing on the crowds (resulting in more than 100
  deaths, all together).

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Continuation

• Some critics of the cartoons described them as
  Islam phobic or racist, and argued that they are
  blasphemous to people of the Muslim faith, are
  intended to humiliate a Danish minority, or are a
  manifestation of ignorance about the history of
  Western imperialism.

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Censorship in Christianity Aniconism in
Christianity

• Byzantine Iconoclasm There were two periods of
  iconoclasm, or icon-destruction, in the Byzantine
  Empire, in the mid eighth and early ninth
  Theologically, the debate, as with most in
  Orthodox theology at the time, revolved around
  the two natures of Jesus.
• Iconoclasts believed that icons could not
  represent both the divine and the human natures
  of the Messiah at the same time, but separately.
• Because an icon which depicted Jesus as purely
  physical would be Nestorianism, and one which
  showed Him as both human and divine would not be
  able to do so without confusing the two natures
  into one mixed nature, which was Monophysitism,
  all icons were thus heretical.

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During the Protestant Reformation

• Aniconism was also prevalent during the
  Protestant Reformation, when some Protestants
  began to preach rejection of what they perceived
  as idolatrous Catholic practices which filled its
  churches with pictures, statues, or relics of
  saints. The Reformed (Calvinist) churches and
  certain sects (most notably the Puritans and some
  of the Baptist churches) began to prohibit the
  display of religious images.
• Among Christians today, The Amish continue to
  avoid photographs or any depictions of people
  their children's dolls usually have blank faces.

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Religious Censorship in Turkey

• Article 312 of the criminal code imposes
  three-year prison sentences for incitement to
  commit an offence and incitement to religious or
  racial hatred.
• In 1999 the mayor of Istanbul and current prime
  minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sentenced to 10
  months' imprisonment under Article 312 for
  reading a few lines from a poem that had been
  authorized by the Ministry of Education for use
  in schools, and consequently had to resign.
• In 2000 the chairman of the Human Rights
  Association, Akin Birdal, was imprisoned under
  Article 312 for a speech in which he called for
  "peace and understanding" between Kurds and
  Turks, and thereafter forced to resign, as the
  Law on Associations forbids persons who breach
  this and several other laws from serving as
  association officials.
• On February 6, 2002, a "mini-democracy package"
  was voted by Parliament, altering wording of Art.
  312. Under the revised text, incitement can only
  be punished if it presents "a possible threat to
  public order.
• The package also reduced the prison sentences for
  Article 159 of the criminal code from a maximum
  of six years to three years. None of the other
  laws had been amended or repealed as of 2002.