Monthly Archives: February 2015

Lebanese Artists Push Back Against State Censorship
In religiously-diverse Lebanon, some residents see censorship of arts and culture as a necessary way to keep the peace and preserve morals. However, artists ...

By: VOAvideo

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Lebanese Artists Push Back Against State Censorship - Video

Laying the Groundwork for Official Censorship: Obama and the FCC
On February 26th, 2015, the FCC will adopt 332 pages of undisclosed regulations regarding net neutrality. These regulations have been proposed by unelected (and therefore unaccountable) FCC...

By: Solomon Overboard

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Laying the Groundwork for Official Censorship: Obama and the FCC - Video

press release

Sudan is undergoing a disturbing wave of censorship, with the confiscation of a total of 19 newspaper issues in the past three days. The seizures not only constitute a grave violation of media pluralism but also inflict major financial losses on publications that are already fighting for economic survival.

In a spectacular series of raids in the capital on 16 February, members of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) seized a total of 13 issues as they came off the presses, including almost all of Khartoum's dailies and two magazines.

The publications affected were Al-Tayar, Al-Rai al-Aam, Al-Intibaha, Akhir Lahza, Al-Ahram al-Youm, Awal al-Nahar, Al-Watan, Al-Sudani, Alwan, Al-Saiha and Al-Mijhar al-Siyasi, and the two magazines, Al-Dar and Hikayat.

Five other newspaper issues were seized yesterday, those of Al Sudani, Al Intibaha, Al Sahafa, Al Mighur and Al Taghier.

"These massive and indiscriminate seizures constitute an unacceptable act of censorship," said Cla Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk.

"The people we contacted in Khartoum have no idea what exactly the government did not like in these issues. But, given the general elections scheduled for April, such actions are likely to recur in the weeks and months ahead. The government seems to want to suppress any reporting that could give rise to a debate."

Economic throttling

This is by no means the first time that the NISS has carried out such raids. Reporters Without Borders calculates that it seized a total of 35 newspaper issues in 2014. Its operatives always act in the same way - waiting until issues are printed and then seizing all copies to prevent their sale. No grounds are ever given and owners have no legal recourse. "These repeated seizures represent a significant loss of income for newspaper owners," Kahn-Sriber added. "The government is clearly aware of this and uses it as part of its strategy for throttling independent print media."

The harassment does not stop there. The well-known journalist Madeeha Abdallah is facing trial on criminal charges of complicity, undermining constitutional order and publishing false information. It was the NISS that brought these charges against her.

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Africa: Spectacular Wave of Censorship in Khartoum

Published on February 20, 2015 Other news

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's censorship board says erotic scenes from the film Fifty Shades of Grey must be deleted before it is shown in this southern African country.

On Friday, Board of Censors secretary Isaac Chiranganyika said some scenes in the film adaptation of E.L. James' novel are too indecent to be shown in public.

One theatre in the capital Harare said it won't show the film because heavy censorship would remove too much. Other theatres agreed to run the chopped-up version.

Board of Censors chairman Heya Malaba, 95, has been uncompromising about erotic movie scenes in the past.

Harare resident Stam Zengeni says he is unconcerned about censorship. He plans to buy a pirate copy of the film for $1.

Organizations: Board of Censors

Geographic location: Zimbabwe, HARARE

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Zimbabwe's censorship board demands that erotic scenes of Fifty Shades of Grey film be edited

Story highlights John Sutter talks with artist Mishka Henner about his "Dutch Landscapes" series The series focuses on an artful effort by the Dutch government to censor Google Maps

It would be hard not to smile, right?

I mean, what is that alien thing?

An oversized kaleidoscope?

A rip in the Matrix?

Some kind of freakish, town-sized cauliflower?

When Mishka Henner, a 38-year-old artist and photographer, came across these "blurred" images of Dutch landscapes on Google Maps, he was similarly perplexed and amused.

"Well, I laughed," he said of the initial discovery.

The hidden zones are "not only bases, they're also royal palaces and fuel depots and ammunition depots and that sort of thing," Henner told me. The Dutch government "used a pretty spectacular method for hiding these locations, which does everything but hide them, basically."

Photographer Mishka Henner

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Opinion: When online censorship is beautiful