Patterns Of Censorship Around The World

Ilan Peleg, Vladimir Wozniuk

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780367282424
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000313376
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"This volume addresses an important aspect in the political life of most
societies today: limitations on freedom of expression and the existence of
censorship. As a topic for research, study, and reflection-particularly in its
comparative dimension-freedom of expression is a somewhat neglected area.
The vast majority of studies in this field focus either on a specific aspect of
freedom of expression or on a specific country. The current volume, however,
assumes that there is much to be gained by studying freedom of expression and
censorship practices broadly and comparatively. In a world grown small, global
perspective is possible and beneficial, particularly when it is applied to an issue
of great relevance for all societies."

Part One
Introduction

1
Censorship in Global and Comparative Perspective: An Analytical Framework

llan Peleg

There is an interesting paradox in regard to freedom of expression. On the one hand, the right to free expression of one’s opinions or ideas is one of the most universally recognized human rights in the contemporary world. On the other hand, this right is one of the most commonly violated ones; thus, the number of political systems denying people the right of free expression is much larger than the number of political systems respecting this right.

The task of this introductory chapter is to offer a preliminary, analytical approach for the systematic study of this paradox and for the inquiry of other dimensions of censorship and freedom of expression in today’s world. Although the chapter refers to many incidents of censorship, these are included not in an attempt to study empirically the phenomenon of free expression but as examples of the type of issues that should be explored in an effort to understand the conditions of free expression in the contemporary world.

A series of important dimensions should be included in a study of censorship and free expression, especially when such study is conducted within a global and comparative framework: (1) the international legal context of censorship and freedom of expression, (2) the methods used to prevent free expression, and (3) the objectives of censorship. These are among some of the most interesting facets of the issue. In addition to specifics, however, one must identify a general approach to the topic at hand. This chapter offers such an approach, which sees censorship primarily as an instrument of power. It seems that censorship could best be studied by identifying regime types as environments for the development of limitations on free expression. Finally, the chapter offers some generalizations about censorship, but these should be understood as merely tentative and suggestive in nature.

Definition and Legal Context

Censorship can be defined in a variety of ways. Yet if one looks at this phenomenon in the contemporary world from a political perspective, the one adopted here, censorship could be defined as the systematic control of the content of communication by a government through various means,¹ There are a few important elements in this definition of censorship:

1. Censorship involves a systematic effort to control ideas and their communication to others: The intensity and comprehensiveness of this effort vary from one regime type to another, but censorship is always a behavioral pattern, not merely a separate incident
2. Those who promote censorship, normally governments, do so because of the specific content of the ideas they are trying to control (although in some extreme cases all independent ideas, all creativity, and all individuality are suppressed).²
3. The methods and means used to control the “production” of ideas and their dissemination are many and extremely varied: legal, economic, physical, and so on. Also, these vary significantly from one regime to another.

Michael Scammell, an internationally recognized expert on censorship, views censorship as a political tool and limitations of freedom of expression as “an instrument to assist in the attainment, preservation or continuance of someone’s power.” For Scammell, censorship is merely “the extension of physical power into the realm of the mind and the spirit.” He contributes to the comparative study of censorship when he states that “the more centralized the physical power and the more total its claims, the more intolerant, wide-ranging and complete the censorship will tend to be.”³

The reality of censorship as a political tool used frequently and systematically by numerous governments is very different from the legal status of free expression in today’s world, either in terms of the domestic law governing different societies or in terms of international law, including its human rights provisions. The international norms governing freedom of expression are very clear. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that “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 regardless of frontiers.”⁴ Although the 1948 document is a declaration and not a binding treaty, it is widely regarded as having achieved the status of customary international law. As such, all governments of the world ought to be bound by the UDHR, including its unambiguous position on freedom of expression.

Numerous additional documents reiterate the UDHR’s position on freedom of expression:

1. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), also in Article 19, guarantees freedom of expression in all forms and media, subject to certain restrictions relating to the rights and reputations of others (slander), protection of national security or public order, and considerations of public health or morals.⁵
2. A few regional (continental) documents also emphasize the “right to receive information” (African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, Article 9), “freedom of thought and expression” (American Convention on Human Rights, Article 13),⁶ and the right to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas “without interference by public authority: (European Convention on Human Rights, Article 10).⁷
3. The Helsinki Final Act (1975) has sections dealing with improving the dissemination of information of all kinds and the working conditions of journalists.

Despite the inclusion of far-reaching, solid commitments to free expression in so many international documents and in numerous national constitutions, the reality of freedom of expression does not match the legal theory. Journalists and artists of all kinds have been a particular target of repression, sometimes as a class; they have been imprisoned, tortured, and even killed, and their works have been banned. It is interesting to note that censorship is by no means a new phenomenon: Every era has its Ovids, Dantes, and Solzhenitsyns.

Furthermore, various aspects of freedom of expression are often violated. Two such aspects are particularly noteworthy: (1) the right to express one’s views and give information by all means and through any media and (2) the right to receive information, which is essential for the protection of other human rights and especially political rights. The right of expression and the right to receive information are closely linked and are, in fact, often violated together.

Censorship and Regime Types

If one wants to analyze censorship as a political instrument, one could do so effectively within the comprehensive framework of regime types. Limitations of freedom of expression are rarely imposed haphazardly: They are an outgrowth of patterns of social behavior, institutions, and political philosophies (that is, of regimes).

There are many meaningful ways to differentiate between and among regimes: one-party versus bi- or multiparty systems; military versus civilian regimes; unitary versus federal systems; monarchies versus republican states; fundamentalist/religious versus secular orders; developing versus developed countries, and so forth. Yet it seems (hypothetically) that for the purpose of dealing with the objectives and methods of censorship in the contemporary world, as well as of understanding the general role censorship plays in various countries today, it would be useful to adopt a rather traditional differentiation among totalitarian, authoritarian, and liberal democratic regimes. As true of all terminologies and classifications, this approach is not free of problems, but its usefulness seems to justify its employment in the analysis of freedom of expression within a comparative framework.

Totalitarian Regimes

There is no general agreement on what exactly totalitarianism, a twentieth-century term, means. Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski see it as a “syndrome” of six features.⁸ Some of these features are extremely relevant for censorship: an official ideology, party control over all aspects of societal life (including mass communications), police terror, and the like. In short, a totalitarian regime is one that has an almost complete monopoly of power in the service of an ideology and a leader (or a small group of leaders). The totality of the control and the regime’s penetration into all aspects of life give this regime type its name and general character.

Totalitarian regimes exhibit a tendency to monopolize under governmental control all means of effective mass communication, such as press, radio, and motion pictures.⁹ Artistic control, and even more so control over journalists, tends to be systematic, comprehensive, organized from above, and rigidly imposed. In all totalitarian regimes, there is a “commitment to a single, positively formulated substantive goal,”¹⁰ and all means are used to achieve this goal, including censorship and the suppression of all organizations or individuals not dedicated to the substantive goals of the regime.

Authoritarian ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• PART 1 INTRODUCTION
• PART 2 TOTALITARIAN SYSTEMS
• PART 3 AUTHORITARIAN SYSTEMS
• PART 4 LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC SYSTEMS
• PART 5 CONCLUSION
• About the Book and Editor
• About the Contributors
• Index