Category Archives: Censorship

BEIRUT, Lebanon At the entrance to the March Lebanon office in Beirut there is a well-stocked bookshelf. Its contents include classics like "Of Mice and Men," "The Diary of Anne Frank," "The Da Vinci Code," "Sophies Choice" and the slightly less classy "Little Book of Big Penis."

Crack the covers and youll realize this isnt any ordinary book collection. The pages are all blank. The Lebanese government has banned them. Turn it over and you might be surprised to read why. The reasons range from homosexual references and politics to religion and vague connection to things Jewish.

On an adjacent shelf sits an eclectic CD collection including Frank Sinatra (Banned: Zionist tendencies), Lady Gaga (Banned: Offensive to Christianity), The Buddha Bar Compilation (Banned: Religion) and Bad Religion (Banned: Offensive name).

March, a Lebanese NGO and the owners of this bizarre collection, have been documenting these obscure and arbitrary censorship practices in Lebanon via their Virtual Museum of Censorship since the group was founded in 2011. To describe their findings as bizarre would be an understatement.

1. "Puss in Boots" Censored Reason: Obscene and immoral. The name "Puss in Boots" was changed to "Cat in Boots" for Lebanese audiences /2. Nirvana Banned Reason: witchcraft, Satanic. While every Nirvana album has been banned in Lebanon, the Nirvana best-of collection strangely passed inspection. /3. "Nutty Professor" Seized during a security services raid on the Beirut Virgin Megastore along with numerous other movies because the films "undermined religions, contravened good morals and Israeli boycott laws, or included texts inciting young people to commit suicide". /4. "The Nanny" Banned Reason: Jewish.

The laws of censorship are so vague that it allows the people in charge to censor anything they want, said Lea Baroudi, a founding member and general coordinator of March. And what worries me is that I think it is getting worse.

Baroudi said many of the inconsistences exist because there is no centralized censorship body. Various ministries, commissions and general security can all legally ban material while religious authorities, political parties and even foreign embassies wield their influence on censorship decisions.

Criteria for censorship listed in one of March's publications seem unhelpfully broad:

- Offensive to the sensitivities of the public

Link:
Why Lebanon censors Frank Sinatra, Puss in Boots, and The West Wing

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Illustration: Kerrie Leishman

I have seen some censorship in my 20-plus years as a journalist reporting from Australia and various countries in the Asia Pacific region.

But what I saw on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea has made me uneasy about press freedom in the Pacific and the Australian Government's approach to reporting on the detention centre.

Last week photographer Nick Moir and I were on the island to report on the aftermath of the riot at the detention centre, which left one asylum seeker dead and about 70 injured.

Immigration Department official tries to block Fairfax photographing Lt General Angus Campbell as he visits the squalid Manus Island Police station prison where six asylum seekers were locked up for 48 hours. Photo: Rory Callinan

Within hours of arriving, staff from G4S, the private security company employed by the Australian Government to manage the centre, had manhandled Nick, confiscated his camera and forced him to delete photographs in order to censor news.

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This occurred after Nick and I visited the island's hospital more than 14 kilometres from the detention centre and supposedly under the jurisdiction of the PNG Government.

We had gone to the hospital in order to check if appropriate procedures were being taken in relation to secure the body of Reza Berati.

Injured asylum seekers on Manus Island. Photo: Nick Moir

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Manhandled, confiscated, censored