Discourses of Censorship: A Historical and International

Perspective

Prof. Epp LaukFritt Ord & Department of Media and Communication UiOUniversity of Tartu, Estoniaepp.lauk@media.uio.no

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.

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.

• An increasing threat to the freedom of expression in today’s democracies comes from the conflict between the media’s 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.

• 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Freedom of the Press: A Global Survey of Media Independence

        numerical rates Totally Free=0100=Totally Not Free

        rankings Totally Free=1193=Totally Not Free

http://www.freedomhouse.org

CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS

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

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

Not Free media countries

• basic political rights are absent

• basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied

• independent media do not exist

Media Freedom in the World

38%

25%

37% Free

Partly free

Not free

Media Freedom and World Population

17%

40%

43% Free

Partly free

Not free

Not FreePartly FreeFree

• 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

FreePartly FreeNot 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

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.

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

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

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 media’s regulatory body or Press Council

serves its own ends• the profitability of multi-national corporations

takes precedence over the dissemination of factual information

6 Continental Categories1. Americas = North, Central and South America + West

Indies2. AsiaPacific = Asia, Australasia, Far East and Pacific

Ocean States 3. C&EE&FSU = Central & Eastern European and Former

Soviet Union4. MidEast&Nafrica = Middle East and North Africa5. Africa Sub Sahara = Sub-Saharan Africa6. W. Europe = Western Europe

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 ownershipconcentration? Share of the national and foreign ownership?

http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/pressurvey.htm

HOME ASSIGNMENTDeadline Sept. 7, 2004