Discourses of Censorship: A Historical and International Perspective

1
Discourses of Censorship A Historical and
International Perspective

Prof. Epp Lauk Fritt Ord Department of Media
and Communication UiO University of Tartu,
Estonia epp.lauk_at_media.uio.no
2
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (United Nations, 10. Dec. 1948)
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression this right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers.
3
Freedom of speech freedom of expression is
regarded as a basic human right

• This is also an attribute of the nature of
  political systems democracies create an
  environment where citizens rights to free speech
  are not restricted by institutionalised
  censorship or suppressed by any other means.
• They may be limited by law to the extent that is
  necessary for protection of other human rights,
  morals and state security.

4

• An increasing threat to the freedom of expression
  in todays democracies comes from the conflict
  between the medias need to provide a public
  service and their business profitability.
• Market forces increasingly influence the state of
  the freedom of expression, as the mainstream
  media are concentrated into multinational
  corporations whose main aim is the maximization
  of profits.

5

• In non-democratic political regimes, the freedom
  of expression (speech, press) may be included in
  the Constitution and protected by legislation,
  but is, in reality, restricted by those people or
  organisations in power.
• Control over all types of expression may be less
  or more strict, less or more overt, and may take
  various forms.
• Censorship is one of the most frequent means of
  control and can be found in the most
  authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

6
Most common arguments in favour of freedom of
speech

• the freedom of speech is necessary for the proper
  working of democracy
• in a democracy the government should be
  accountable to the people
• that the freedom of speech is likely to be
  conducive to the discovery of truth.

7
Less common but increasingly favoured argument in
favour of freedom of speech

• the discovery of truth requires a free
  market-place of ideas which covers any form of
  expression

8
Human Rights argument in favour of freedom of
speech

• in order for a government to respect the moral
  dignity of its citizens a government must grant
  them fairly broad and deep free-speech rights
• to deny the freedom of speech also denies the
  freedom to hear / listen
• the freedom of speech is intimately tied to
  thinking
• the denial of the freedom to think ultimately
  affects the freedom of all expressions.

9
Arguments in favour of restricting the freedom of
speech

• national security
• territorial integrity
• public safety
• public order
• public health
• the reputation or rights of others
• confidential private information
• the impartiality of legal proceedings
• the public from crime.

10
Freedom of the Press A Global Survey of Media
Independence
CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS

•         numerical rates
• Totally Free0?100Totally Not Free
•         rankings
• Totally Free1?193Totally Not Free
• http//www.freedomhouse.org

11
Free media countries

• open political competition, where the rule of law
  prevails
• a climate of respect for civil liberties
• basic human rights are protected
• significant independent civic life
• independent media

12
Partly Free media countries

• limited respect for political rights and civil
  liberties
• suffer from an environment of corruption
• weak rule of law
• ethnic and religious strife
• often a setting in which a single political party
  enjoys dominance despite the façade of limited
  pluralism
• some legal, political or economic restrictions
  are focused on the media

13
Not Free media countries

• basic political rights are absent
• basic civil liberties are widely and
  systematically denied
• independent media do not exist

14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Not Free?Partly Free?Free

• Increasing political stability
• Unconditional Access to Information the
  Internet and Uncensored Foreign Broadcasts
• Increasing Editorial Independence of the Media
• Free Movement of Journalists national and
  international

17
Free?Partly Free?Not Free

• Political Turmoil
• Election related violence
• Murders of Journalists
• State directed control/censorship of the media
• State directed intimidation of the media use of
  lawsuits against private media / revoking
  publishing licences / suspending or banning
  publications
• Opposition groups barred from using the media
• Anti-terror legislation, specifically that
  limiting public speech

18
Overall Ratings

• No country has ever achieved a 0 score
• 8 is the best
• No country has achieved a 100 score
• 98 is the worst.

19
Worst case scenario

• A State where
• independent media are either nonexistent or
  barely able to operate
• the role of the press is to act as a mouthpiece
  for the ruling regime
• citizens access to unbiased information is
  severely limited or absent
• legal pressure is used against independent media
  outlets

20
Worst case scenario

• media outlets have their power supplies sabotaged
  by the State
• all other forms of harassment to severely curtail
  the ability of independent media outlets to
  report freely
• state employed journalists are arrested, tried,
  and sentenced to lengthy prison terms

21
Worst case scenario

• journalists are murdered on the orders of the
  State
• the democratically elected party is not allowed
  to form a government by the incumbents
• the medias regulatory body or Press Council
  serves its own ends
• the profitability of multi-national corporations
  takes precedence over the dissemination of
  factual information

22
6 Continental Categories

• Americas North, Central and South America
  West Indies
• AsiaPacific Asia, Australasia, Far East and
  Pacific Ocean States
• CEEFSU Central Eastern European and Former
  Soviet Union
• MidEastNafrica Middle East and North Africa
• Africa Sub Sahara Sub-Saharan Africa
• W. Europe Western Europe

23
HOME ASSIGNMENT Deadline Sept. 7, 2004
Characterise the situation of media freedom in
one country of each continental area. Make a
10-15 min presentation. What is the nature of
the political order in this country? What are
the political conditions for the media? Are the
media independent from the government? Are they
controlled by the government and in which way?
Any institutionalised censorship? Legal
conditions how much is the media freedom
regulated/restricted? Economic conditions Who
owns the media? Level of ownership concentration?
Share of the national and foreign
ownership? http//www.freedomhouse.org/research/p
ressurvey.htm