What is censorship? Why is it so closely related to the concepts of freedom of speech and freedom of expression? Stroll argues that censorship means an act in which one person (or a group of persons) imposes his views upon another.[1] Censorship is not a new matter. In 19th century France, there was censorship of caricatures where pictures were feared by the authorities far more than words.[2] In fact, censorship of freedom of speech appeared in 25 A.D. Rome in the case of Sejanus who forced Cremutius Cordus to commit suicide by bringing him to trial for his history of the achievements of Augustus, in which he had praised Cassius and Brutus.[3] What about censorship in the modern world? Is it necessary? This article tries to answer the necessity of censorship in the modern world.
It is not easy to determine whether censorship is necessary or not. We have to be able to distinguish the contexts behind censorship. In moral censorship, for instance that of pornography, censorship is necessary. Pornography is considered as books or films that show sexual activity in order to cause sexual excitement. In many Muslim countries, pornography is prohibited because it is incompatible with Islamic values. Therefore, censorship in this context is necessary.
In another context, namely military censorship, I argue that censorship is necessary as well. In this context, the governments have the authority to keep military intelligence away from the enemy. Military censorship may restrict information to the public which endangers the countries` security. However, in the case of military censorship in Germany in 1914, Randall argues that the censorship was the worst kind of censorship, for it was military censorship in the sense of being administrated by military authorities, but it extended far beyond the military sphere and covered every branch of national life. The case shows us that on the pretext of preventing the leakage of military information, censorship was established and had been constantly employed for the suppression of opinion and the stifling of political criticism.[4]
Nevertheless, I argue that in other contexts, censorship is not necessary. In the context of religious censorship where the government of a country forces limitations on a certain less dominant sect of a religion, censorship is not necessary. It contradicts human rights. The 2005 Ahmadiyah case in Indonesia, when the Council of Indonesian Ulama (the MUI) issued a fatwa (an Islamic decree) emphasizing the heresy of Ahmadiyah, shows us that religious censorship is not necessary. The fatwa triggered negative sentiments against Ahmadiyah, and religious extremist groups used the fatwa to validate their attacks on members of Ahmadiyah.
Furthermore, censorship of educational sources is absolutely unnecessary. There was even censorship of books in the U.S. which is always considered as one of the most democratic countries in the world. One of the most famous examples of this kind of censorship is the banning of Fahrenheit 451. This book is about censorship and those who ban books for fear of creating too much individualism and independent thought. In late 1998, this book was removed from the required reading list of the West Marion High School in Foxworth, Mississippi. A parent complained of the use of the words “God damn” in the book. Subsequently, the superintendent instructed the teacher to remove the book from the required reading list.[5]
The above cases show us that to determine whether censorship is necessary or not is not an easy task. Therefore, I argue to some extent, that censorship is necessary for certain contexts and unnecessary for other contexts.
[1] Stroll, Avrum. “Censorship, Models and Self-Government” in Journal of Value Inquiry, 1:2, 1967, p. 91.
[2] Goldstein, Robert Justin. “Censorship of Caricature in France, 1815-1914”, in French History, 3:1, 1989, p. 71.
[3] Geer, Russel M. “One Ancient Attempt at Censorship”, in Classical Weekly, Volume 23, No. 18, p. 144.
[4] Randall, James G. “Germany’s Censorship and News Control”, in North American Review, 208, 1918, p. 51.
[5] http://www.banned-books.com/bblista-i.html
