Category Archives: Censorship

CANNES, France - Two directors from countries with tough film censorship brought bold and probing movies to the Cannes Film Festival on Friday one exploring China's social problems, the other delving into the mysteries of the human heart.

Jia Zhangke's "A Touch of Sin" depicts facets of fast-changing China the government prefers to avoid: corruption, greed, violent crime and the growing gap between economic winners and losers.

"The Past," by Academy Award-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, is an unsparing tale of domestic upheaval, set in and around Paris and made with a largely French cast.

Both films are competing for Cannes' top prize, the Palme d'Or and both have been cleared for release in their homelands, where filmmakers often fall foul of restrictions.

Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has approved "The Past" for screening, and "A Touch of Sin" is due to open in China in the fall.

The two directors are pleased their films will be seen at home, but they gave very different descriptions of working in settings where official censorship is an everyday reality.

"I'm someone who is deeply attached to my creative freedom, and I always do my utmost to ensure I don't indulge in any form of self-censorship," said Jia, who has explored China's rapid transformation throughout his career from early underground films such as "Unknown Pleasures" to documentaries to the Venice Film Festival prize-winning 2006 feature "Still Life."

Farhadi, though, said the effect of censorship was more insidious.

"One can try to free oneself of the past, but the past doesn't let you do that," he said both a theme of "The Past" and an observation of his own situation.

"There are two kinds of censorship," he told reporters. "You have official censorship which works in a certain way. But there is also self-censorship. You impose it on your innermost self."

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Iran's Asghar Farhadi and China's Jia Zhangke talk cinema and censorship in Cannes

Heidi Stevenson - Fake Measles Epidemic and Censorship
Heidi Stevenson has recently wrote a blog post were she claims that the Welsh Measles Epidemic is faked. In this video Nega talks about the data she presents...

By: powerm1985

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Heidi Stevenson - Fake Measles Epidemic and Censorship - Video

May 16, 2013 (KHARTOUM) The Sudanese authorities have officially began implementing the directives of 1st Vice President Ali Osman Taha to lift direct pre-publication censorship on newspapers.

Taha disclosed his orders on Wednesday, which he said were effective immediately but officers from Sudans National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) banned newspapers from publishing this portion of the VPs remarks.

The Sudanese National Council for Press and Publications today welcomed the governments decision and noted that they are understanding of the circumstances that prompted the imposition of censorship in the past.

The pro-government body said that Khartoum wanted to prevent the publication of items affecting the countrys security and movement of the army in operations and conflict zones which has the potential of weakening the internal front and providing a platform for hostile forces to exploit the press through disseminating disincentives and misinformation that would have a negative impact on public opinion.

"But in spite of all that the Council has always advocated lifting of pre-publication censorship on the press in accordance with the principle of freedom of expression and press freedom within the framework of social responsibility and betting on the ability of the journalism community to strike the required balance between freedom and responsibility" the statement said.

Pre-publication press censorship in Sudan has been on and off over the last few years and allowed NISS agents to direct items that cannot be published in newspapers or even decide what makes it to the front page.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir in the past has expressed uneasiness over lifting censorship and warned newspapers not to cross what he described as "red lines".

In an interview last year the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV, Bashir said that he will not allow newspapers to publish items deemed insulting to the army and defended closures of some at the hands of the NISS.

If we look at the two newspapers closed down there were objective reasons for security organs to intervene and shut down these newspapers Bashir said.

We are now fighting and we have an army battling. Any [negative] comments on the spirits of the armed forces or attacking the armed forces or endangering national security; no state accepts prejudice to its national security, he added.

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Sudan officially lifts pre-publication censorship

Khartoum The Sudanese authorities have officially began implementing the directives of 1st Vice President Ali Osman Taha to lift direct pre-publication censorship on newspapers.

Taha disclosed his orders on Wednesday which he said were effective immediately but officers from Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) banned newspapers from publishing this portion of the VP's remarks.

The Sudanese National Council for Press and Publications today welcomed the government's decision and noted that they are understanding of the circumstances that prompted the imposition of censorship in the past.

The pro-government body said that Khartoum wanted to prevent the publication of items affecting the country's security and movement of the army in operations and conflict zones which has the potential of weakening the internal front and providing a platform for hostile forces to exploit the press through disseminating disincentives and misinformation that would have a negative impact on public opinion.

"But in spite of all that the Council has always advocated lifting of pre-publication censorship on the press in accordance with the principle of freedom of expression and press freedom within the framework of social responsibility and betting on the ability of the journalism community to strike the required balance between freedom and responsibility" the statement said.

Pre-publication press censorship in Sudan has been on and off over the last few years and allowed NISS agents to direct items that cannot be published in newspapers or even decide what makes it to the front page.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir in the past has expressed uneasiness over lifting censorship and warned newspapers not to cross what he described as "red lines".

In an interview last year the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV, Bashir said that he will not allow newspapers to publish item deemed insulting to the army and defended closures of some at the hands of the NISS.

"If we look at the two newspapers closed down there were objective reasons for security organs to intervene and shut down these newspapers" Bashir said.

"We are now fighting and we have an army battling. Any [negative] comments on the spirits of the armed forces or attacking the armed forces or endangering national security; no state accepts prejudice to its national security," he added.

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Sudan: Sudan Officially Lifts Pre-Publication Censorship

Censorship documentary

By: valerie rojas

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Censorship documentary - Video

Latest World News Just My Opinion_ Prostitute mentality of Hollywood censorship

By: TheDailyNewsTimes

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Latest World News Just My Opinion_ Prostitute mentality of Hollywood censorship - Video

ASIC has been revealed as the agency behind the blocking of a Melbourne education website, using a hitherto-unused internet censorship power.

An inept regulator exercising a hitherto-unused internet censorship power has been revealed as the source of the accidental blocking of a Melbourne education website.

IT industry news site Delimiter has revealed that Australian Securities and Investments Commissionwas behind the blocking of the Melbourne Free University website and more than 1000 other sites in early April when it sought to block a website suspected of engaging in fraud, using a power under s.313 of the Telecommunications Act.

The reason for the blocking of the site in April has remained a mystery, but Delimiters Renai LeMay pursued the issue and eventually unearthed from Broadband Minister Stephen Conroys office the fact that a broad power under the Telecommunications Act had been used.

Under s.313, a carrier or carriage service provider must:

give officers and authorities of the Commonwealth and of the States and Territories such help as is reasonably necessary for the following purposes: enforcing the criminal law and laws imposing pecuniary penalties; assisting the enforcement of the criminal laws in force in a foreign country; protecting the public revenue; safeguarding national security.

ASIC in effect used this power to censor the internet, in the course of which over 1000 sites unconnected to the target site were blocked, including Melbourne Free University, which was told nothing by authorities or its ISP about why.

ASIC is one of Australias most inept regulators, with a string of courtroom defeats marking its efforts to enforce corporate law. Despite its record of bumbling, last year ASIC used the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Securitys inquiry into data retention to demand an expansion of its power to intercept internet and phone communications.

ASICs use of the s.313 power opens the possibility of a de facto internet filter scheme with less oversight than the filter originally proposed by Stephen Conroy in the governments first term. As LeMay correctly notes, a filter comprised of individual requests from a variety of regulators asserting they are enforcing criminal laws or safeguarding national security is harder to monitor or hold to account. As Melbourne Free University discovered, it is also very difficult for businesses and organisations accidentally blocked to discover who has blocked them or why.

In Tuesdays budget, the government announced its abandonment of the internet filter scheme would enable a saving of several million dollars. It has been replaced with a voluntary filter scheme limited to sites identified by Interpol. That filter is a minimal one compared with both to the original Conroy proposal, which would have targeted a broader range of allegedly illegal content under Australian laws, and the one available via s.313, which is driven purely by the internal interpretations by regulators of what is enforcing criminal law or safeguarding national security.

Originally posted here:
Bumbling ASIC heralds new internet censorship era

Chinese government censors are silencing influential opponents by shutting down their social media accounts on the pretext of a campaign against online rumors, victims of the practice say.

The authorities believe that liberal ideology will undermine their rule, says Murong Xuecun, a famous author and outspoken critic of censorship whose accounts on four Twitter-like platforms disappeared suddenly last Sunday evening. The space on Chinas Internet for public opinion is being narrowed.

Social media sites such as Sina Weibo, which has 300 million users, have become forums for unprecedented freewheeling discussion and news-sharing. Despite being subject to careful censorship, they have expanded the range for self-expression beyond recognition throughout the past five years.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about China? Take our quiz.

Particularly striking has been the role of a few well-regarded intellectuals who have drawn millions of followers with often-barbed comments on current affairs that are seldom sympathetic to the Communist Party or the government.

They appear to be among the first to be affected by a campaign by the State Internet Information Office, launched two weeks ago, targeting those who create and spread rumors online, said the state-run news agency Xinhua.

SHADOWY PURPOSE

Though Xinhua made reference to bloggers spreading rumors about bird flu, other observers see a darker purpose behind the campaign.

The government fears that more and more opinion leaders are gaining recognition by ordinary people and they represent an alternative authority to the government, argues Zhang Xuezhong, a lawyer whose own Sina Weibo account was mysteriously closed on Monday.

Such opinion leaders are a focus of the official crackdown on rumors.

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As China's social media takes off, Beijing's censorship campaign heats up

Hollywood films face China #39;s strict censorship
Quentin Tarantino #39;s "Django Unchained" was re-released in China after censors made changes to the film to meet the country #39;s strict standards. Seth Doane rep...

By: CBSNewsOnline

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Hollywood films face China's strict censorship - Video

Iron Man 3 Caters to Chinese Censorship
There are two cuts of Iron Man 3: the regular edition and the one meant to cater to Chinese censorship. There are some special additions made to the film, ma...

By: townsquare

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Iron Man 3 Caters to Chinese Censorship - Video