Category Archives: Censorship

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

What is censorship?
Giovanna Vasquez.

By: Ninagirl322

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What is censorship? - Video

French voiced, FreeSpeechMe anti-censorship Free Software Plug-in
YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/editor)

By: RANA

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French voiced, FreeSpeechMe anti-censorship Free Software Plug-in - Video

The New Tape, Melih Gokcek, Phone Calls! CHP Banners Erdogan Censorship Gokcek
The government Congregation of the war between the audio recordings revealed stop doesn #39;t know. This time the published records again the targets of the AKP....

By: Haber Var

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The New Tape, Melih Gokcek, Phone Calls! CHP Banners Erdogan Censorship Gokcek - Video

Communist Regime Tightens News Censorship with News Ethics Committee
Follow us on TWITTER: http://twitter.com/cnforbiddennews Like us on FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/chinaforbiddennews The joint meeting of the Communist P...

By: ChinaForbiddenNews

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Communist Regime Tightens News Censorship with News Ethics Committee - Video

Bad Censorship: Frozen Edition
Well, here #39;s the first edition of Killowops #39;s Bad Censorship series. No Copyright Intended. But laughing is.

By: Killowops

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Bad Censorship: Frozen Edition - Video

Unnecessary Censorship | BAD WORDS w/ Jason Bateman Q+A
U-C-L-A F*#@ SC! Come see Jason Bateman in person at CEC #39;s free sneak of BAD WORDS. Q+A to follow sneak. Reserve spot on eventbrite here. http://www.eventbri...

By: uclacec

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Unnecessary Censorship | BAD WORDS w/ Jason Bateman Q+A - Video

South Park Censorship, Minecraft Movie and Mob Wives in GTA - Newsround #87 (28/02/14)
On today #39;s edition of Newsround, Colm Ahern looks at the censorship of The Stick of Truth, a potential Minecraft film and a GTA V lawsuit http://www.godisage...

By: GodisaGeek

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South Park Censorship, Minecraft Movie and Mob Wives in GTA - Newsround #87 (28/02/14) - Video

KENNESAW, GA (CBS46) -

Several people wore T-shirts and held "censored" signs at the grand opening of the Zuckerman Museum on Saturday night. The new museum at Kennesaw State University contains more than 7,000 pieces of art, but one of them was pulled just two days before the grand opening, inciting an uproar from art connoisseurs and supporters in the Atlanta area.

"We're here in protest of censorship of art," said Alan Avery. "It's my belief this piece was removed because it set a precedent of reflecting back on a history of Georgia which we're not necessarily proud of."

The piece in question is a display composed by Atlanta-area artist Ruth Stanford. Called "A Walk In The Valley," the collection and arrangement of items was commissioned for the grand opening of the museum.

University administrators pulled the piece Thursday, two days before the grand opening.

"It really was an exploration of people, history and place, and how those things intertwine to affect how we feel about particular sites," said Stanford. She said one of the features of the piece calls to attention the life and work of Corra Harris, a Georgia-born writer who attained fame in the early 20th century.

Her career is considered to have been launched largely by an article she wrote in 1899, advocating the practice of lynching. Harris' legacy has forever been linked with that work.

"The letter that launched her career was a really shockingly racist letter," said Stanford, who also said she believes the racial undertone is the reason her display was pulled at the last minute. Stanford said she never thought something like that would happen.

"It really angers me," said Avery, standing with several protesters. "I'd hoped that this would be a great institution for the state of Georgia, and now we have this censorship and this pulling of art work to hide this history that we don't want to reflect on. It (the museum) now becomes irrelevant. The institution is unimportant at this point."

"It's really important to make sure we hear a lot of voices," said Dr. Catherine Lewis, the Executive Director of Museums, Archives and Rare Books at KSU. She said she welcomed the protest in front of the main entrance.

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At new KSU museum, protesters picket over censorship of racially-linked display

Censorship is a tricky subject and governments hardly ever get it right.

The current legislation says that material should be "objectionable" before censorship is applied. It then goes on to give examples of "objectionable", many of which seem to be reasonable, but the recent banning of the band Odd Future seemed to push the parameters. This music group caused a stir and though politicians may say that it was decision of "an official" they are ultimately responsible for what is censored as they make the policy. The band was banned as it might incite violence and not banned for their "lyrics," though "lyrics" is probably too fine a word.

New Zealand has a long history of censorship which is summarised in A Short History of Censorship in New Zealand by the Department of Internal Affairs. It shows that censorship grew from the colonial society and was strengthened as the state extended greater control over New Zealand society. Truth is the first casualty of war and censorship was common during and after World War I because of the "red threat".

Censorship, as this short history shows, has taken a scattergun approach. A lot of rubbish has been censored and after a bit of a splutter has disappeared never to be seen again. In fact, censorship has probably given oxygen to a weak flame.

Classical art, books and films have all have been subject to censorship at some time. Examples in literature are Lolita and Lady Chatterly's Lover and in film, All Quiet on the Western Front (anti-war propaganda), and Ulysses by Irish writer James Joyce and probably the greatest piece of fiction ever written.

Ulysses is an interesting case. Copies were seized by customs when it was shipped to the United States, but a judge later ruled that it was not pornographic and therefore could not be obscene. Technically it was not banned in Ireland as it was never imported and offered for sale.

There is no doubt that it would have been banned given the Catholic Church's hold over Irish politicians who in any case did not think well of Joyce after he described Ireland as a "sow that eats its own farrow".

The New Zealand Collector of Customs in 1950 wrote to his superior to tell him "that six copies of the novel had been imported into Napier, and five had been sold before the Examining Officer saw the relative invoices.

He said the book "seems to be one of the dirtiest I have seen, written by a mental defective".

Joyce's sister Margaret whom he called "Poppy" was a Sister of Mercy nun in Christchurch. She exercised her own form of censorship by ensuring Joyce's many letters to her were destroyed.

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Censorship a thorny issue