Category Archives: Censorship

A leading playwright has accused the BBC of an extraordinary act of censorship after the corporation told her to cut key lines from a drama about honour killings which will be broadcast by Radio 4 this week.

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, whose controversial play Behzti was pulled from a Birmingham theatre in 2004 following protests from the Sikh community, wrote an episode for Radio 4s DCI Stone series, which will be broadcast in the Afternoon Drama slot.

Bhattis episode, called Heart Of Darkness and due to air on Friday, tells the story of an investigation into the killing of a 16 year-old Asian girl, whose dumped body is found after being stabbed to death.

When it emerges that the girl was a victim of an honour killing, DCI Stone is told by his bosses is to treat the case sensitively because of her Muslim heritage.

A week before recording I got an email from the producer saying the BBC compliance department had asked them to take lines out, Bhatti told the Index On Censorship conference on artistic freedom of expression in the UK, held at the South Bank.

At the end, a character says: There is so much pressure in our community, to look right and to behave right. The compliance department came back and said we dont want to suggest the entire Muslim community condones honour killings.

Its an extraordinary and awful situation. They said the lines were offensive but they absolutely were not. We live in a fear-ridden culture.

Unbelievably, what the compliance department said was if you can find a factual example of community pressure leading to an honour killing, you can have the line. But its a drama, a story.

Its a crucial part of that story. I was very disappointed given my previous experience of censorship. If you take out the line, the whole thing changes, its a betrayal of the character and the truth of the unfolding story.

Bhattis play Behzti, which contained scenes of rape, abuse and murder inside a Sikh temple, provoked massive demonstrations outside the Birmingham Rep. But she is now a writer on The Archers and said that Heart Of Darkness, commissioned for an afternoon slot, contained nothing that ought to be seen as provocative.

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Behzti playwright accuses BBC of 'extraordinary' censorship of 'honour killings' episode

London, Jan. 30 (ANI): The British broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been accused of an 'extraordinary' act of censorship for ordering a playwright to edit certain lines from a Radio 4 drama about honour killings.

In an episode for the broadcaster's DCI Stone series, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti told the story of an investigation into the killing of a 16-year-old Asian girl.

When it came to light that the teenager had been a victim of a so-called honour killing, the fictional detective is advised to handle the case "sensitively" because the family is Muslim, the Telegraph reports.

At the end of the episode, called Heart Of Darkness and due to be broadcast in the Afternoon Drama slot this week, a character said that "there is so much pressure in our community, to look right and to behave right."

Bhatti said that a week before recording she received an email from the producer saying the BBC compliance department had asked them to take lines out.

She added that 'it is an extraordinary and awful situation. They said the lines were offensive but they absolutely were not'.

The BBC's alleged "censorship" of Bhatti's work came after her controversial play Behzti was withdrawn from a Birmingham theatre after protests from Sikhs in 2004.

The play featured scenes of rape, abuse and murder inside a Sikh temple and sparked demonstrations outside the Birmingham Rep.

A Radio 4 spokesman told The Independent that "this is a hard-hitting drama about the realities of honour killing in Britain'.

He said that "a single line in the script could be taken to infer that the pressure and motivation to commit such a crime in a family comes from the wider Muslim community, potentially misrepresenting majority British Muslim attitudes to honour killing'.

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BBC accused of 'extraordinary' act of 'censorship' for editing play on Muslim honour killings

By Emel Akan Epoch Times Staff Created: January 29, 2013 Last Updated: January 30, 2013

ISTANBULRumors that two classic books could face censorship in Turkey boosted them to best-seller status within a week.

Steinbecks Of Mice and Men reportedly had been referred to the authorities for censorship in schools in Turkey because of several immoral parts of text, along with popular childrens book My Sweet Orange Tree. The Ministry of Education subsequently denied the rumors, but not before books sales soared.

It is true that recent reactions have boosted the sales. It is not desirable though. It is unfortunate that the book has become part of such rumors, said Irfan Sanci, chief editor of Sel Publishing House that publishes Of Mice and Men.

Publisher of My Sweet Orange Tree, Can Publications also confirmed soaring sales. A representative said: The increase was triggered by both reaction and curiosity. There has been lot of support by readers. Some were second time buyers.

But the manager at Kabalci bookstore in Besiktas, one of the busiest bookstores in Istanbul downplayed the reported increase in sales. We have seen more interest and some reactionary buying in the last few weeks, but it was not enormous. It was media pump up. Some people bought the books with the fear of censorship.

Both books have been popular in schools as they are among the 100 novels recommended by the Ministry of Education. Leading Turkish online bookstore Idefix, has listed both books as bestsellers.

Books are resilient the more they are banned or attempted to be banned the more people read them. said World famous Turkish author Elif Safak in a tweet when the two books hit the bestseller lists.

Although it is a common practice to ban books in Turkey, the government recently lifted a ban on 453 books. Some included titles from 1960s70s.

Izmir Education Directorates Books Evaluation Commission had sent a report calling for the Ministry of Education to ban certain parts of John Steinbecks classic according to an article by Daily Birgun on Jan. 3. The commission had listed pages 63 and 64 as immoral in its report.

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Censorship Rumors in Turkey Boost Classics to Bestseller List

WHY do some people take to the streets over a film they deem as insulting to their value system, beliefs, principles and way of life?

Simon Jenkins in his article Rated L for lies said , ...films appeal to inner fears and chauvanist prejudice... (Sunday Star, Jan 27).

It is precisely because of this that the Tamil film Vishwaroopam which opened on Thursday to packed houses has been withdrawn from cinemas following a directive from the Home Ministry after the Penang Muslim League president Datuk Najmudeen Kadeer demanded a review of the film as it portrayed Islam in a negative light. (The Star, Jan 26).

The protest probably followed the ban on the film by the Tamil Nadu government in India after it created unhappiness among Muslims in that state.

Going by the slogan of Rakyat Di Dahulukan, the Home Ministry has directed the Malaysian Film Censorship Board to review it.

The issue before us as a civilised society is where do we draw the line whether a film is seen as touching on ones religious or socio-politico sensitivities?

If we want to scrutinise every films, then we can make a mountain out of a molehill for almost every film touching on ones sensitivity.

To some, like film director Kathryn Bigelow, who when commenting on her film Zero Dark Thirty which depicted gruesome scenes of CIA waterboarding in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, said it is just a movie not a documentary and pleads her First Amendment right to create works of art and speak her conscience..(Sunday Star, Jan 27). Prior to 1980, films were seen as entertainment and viewed for its cinematic appeal.

Classic films such as Ben Hur, Spartacus, The Bible, Ten Commandments, The Fall of the Roman Empire, King of Kings, Jesus of Nazareth, Cleopatra, Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, were never an issue.

Today, any film with a Christian theme must have a crawler warning Muslims that these films are for non-Muslims only to prevent any issues arising from it, by some individuals or NGOs.

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Film censorship board walking a tightrope

GUANTANAMO NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Someone else besides the judge and security officer sitting inside the maximum-security court here can impose censorship on what the public can see and hear at the Sept. 11 trial, it was disclosed Monday

The role of an outside censor became clear when the audio turned to white noise during a discussion of a motion about the CIAs black sites.

Confusion ensued. A military escort advised reporters that the episode was a glitch, a technical error. A few minutes later, the public was once again allowed to listen into the proceedings and Army Col. James Pohl, the judge, made clear that neither he nor his security officer was responsible for the censorship episode.

If some external body is turning the commission off based on their own views of what things ought to be, with no reasonable explanation, the judge announced, then we are going to have a little meeting about who turns that light on or off.

His comments appeared to be aimed at the Pentagon prosecution team. Attorney Joanna Baltes, representing the Justice Department on secrecy matters in the case, advised the judge that she could explain what other forces have a hand in censoring the court proceedings. But not in open session.

The alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four accused conspirators were sitting in court, listening to everything that was being said from the part that the public was forbidden to hear to the judges demand for an explanation. Three of the defendants adorned their traditional white tunics with camouflage, an attire option they won from the judge to appear at trial as self-styled soldiers.

The strange censorship episode occurred as attorney David Nevin, defending Mohammed, was advising the judge that defense lawyers had wanted to argue a motion in court to preserve whatever remained of the CIAs secret overseas prison network. Prosecutors had filed a classified response to the request, and the judge asked the two sides if they would let their motions speak for themselves. Nevin was explaining why not.

Defense lawyers argue the alleged 9/11 conspirators were tortured in the so-called black sites, and that the U.S. government has lost its moral authority to seek their execution. The CIA set up the sites during the Bush administration, reportedly in Poland, Romania, Thailand and elsewhere. President Barack Obama ordered them closed.

The lawyers want the judge to order the government to preserve whats left of them, six years after Mohammed and his co-defendants were moved to Guantnamo for trial. This is a familiar role for Pohl, who was the judge in the 2004 trials of U.S. soldiers for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and declared the prison in Iraq a crime scene, forbidding its demolition.

Unclear so far in these hearings is whether the judge knows where the black-site prisons were and whether any of them remain. Although he has a special security clearance to hear the 9/11 case, the CIA has not yet released classified information to the court because the defense and prosecution are still haggling over a protective order.

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Strange censorship episode at Guantánamo enrages judge

Unnecessary Censorship: Barack Obama Inauguration
My First Project

By: Erin Reid

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Unnecessary Censorship: Barack Obama Inauguration - Video

6. Unnecessary Censorship Inauguration Speech

By: TheMightyDuckHunters

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6. Unnecessary Censorship Inauguration Speech - Video

As Jordanians head to the polls to elect a new parliament, their fifth in two years, many are sceptical their votewill bring change.

The present looks like the past: the Muslim Brotherhood is calling for a boycott , as it did in 2010 and 2011. Banners plaster Jordan's roads, cars, and roundabouts, thick with old faces and old platforms.

But one thing these elections have brought is a newly prominent role for social media. One candidate captivating the nation is Shibli Haddad, whose sudden popularity, thanks to a studio-recorded YouTube song and a Facebook photo campaign depicting him farming in sunglasses and a suit, was documented in a popular infographic .

On the eve of the election, an anonymously leaked YouTube video caused a kerfuffle, appearing to show members of Parliamentslighting a prime minister in 2009.

Jordan's King Abdullah, who has championed Jordan as an information and communication technology (ICT) hub since the beginning of his reign, has pledged that this election is a step towards openness and democracy.

With an increase in the quota for women, a pledge to consult parliament in the next prime ministry appointment, and the addition of coalition-friendly lists of national seats to the ballot, the Hashemite monarch promises to inch the country towards proportional representation and the healthy creation of political parties.

"I look forward to this immediate next step towards full parliamentary government," he said last week.

Yet for Jordan's tech community, whose leading new media platforms carry 75 percent of the region's digital content, the elections bring ongoing issues to a head. Last autumn, they fought long and hard against new censorship laws, despite a legal process initially stacked against dissent.

Now, they face a quandary, as they wonder whether the new parliament will pass the single document that they say will help protect the kingdom's fastest growing industrial sector.

Overturning censorship

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Jordan elections reignite censorship fight

Joy Of Censorship 03 1

By: Joe Raiola

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Joy Of Censorship 03 1 - Video

self-censorship clips
a collection of clips about self-censorship

By: ajreilly57

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self-censorship clips - Video