The Hindu | No censorship? The Hindu No serious thought seems to be given to the agonising rise in the cases of rape and molestation, which one believes is due to the absence of a separate Censor Board for television. With the rise in TV channels and serials, one comes across horrendous ... |
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No censorship? - The Hindu
The show must not go on.
So sayeth some of President Trumps most ardent fans, who spent the past week and a half attempting to shut down a production of Julius Caesar with a Trump-like character in the title role.
These Trumpkins part of a bloc known for mocking political correctness, safe spaces and undue efforts to avoid offending the pwecious feewings of others deemed the show politically incorrect, unsafe and offensive.
Peaceful protest would be well within their rights. But these illiberal cultural illiterates instead wanted curtains for the offending Elizabethan play.
They stormed the stage at multiple shows, including Sunday evenings closing performance. They yelled and screamed inside and outside the open-air production part of the Public Theaters annual Shakespeare in the Park series to drown out dialogue they disliked. They threatened violence, sometimes quite graphically.
Some even sent death threats to other productions of Shakespeare and other plays in other parks.
In this, they are more like Caesars plebeian partisans than they may realize: It is no matter, his names Cinna, a member of a murderous mob cries in Act III, Scene 3 of the play, before tearing apart an innocent poet with the bad fortune to bear the same name as a perceived enemy of the state.
The justification for these present-day disruptions and threats is that, at least according to (wrong) right-wing media reports, the production advocates assassination of a Trump-like Roman tyrant. But the only people lately threatening political violence in the name of Julius Caesar are those who wanted to shut this play down.
If these reactionaries had actually thought about the play, theyd realize its portrayal of the aftermath of assassination offers the opposite lesson: that those who attempt to defend democracy by undemocratic means pay a terrible price and destroy the very thing they are fighting to save, as the Public Theater put it in a statement to theatergoers.
Theres a part of me that wants to rejoice that, 168 years after New Yorks Astor Place riots (also inspired by a contentious interpretation of the Bard), the theater can still be a source of so much controversy. In recent months not just Julius Caesar but also Hamilton has brought a raucous and artistically challenging rialto to the center of national social discourse.
Still, needless to say, death threats are not the type of intellectual engagement and social validation that most theater nerds were looking for.
The violent rhetoric of recent days is certainly no fault of the Public, even if, in choosing to portray Caesar with blondish hair, an ultra-long tie and a Slovenian-accented paramour, it clearly intended to provoke. But then, last years Taming of the Shrew production also had a Trumpian character portrayed by a woman, no less and earned no incendiary Fox News coverage.
Nor is this debacle the fault of a few misguided protesters alone.
After all, they were just firing the latest salvo in the ongoing war against the free exchange of ideas, that most precious and endangered of liberal democratic values.
Plenty of conservatives like to believe that illiberalism is confined to liberal college students. Certainly there is evidence that millennials are at the vanguard of hostility to free speech. But as I have written time and again, attempts to stamp out speech are not confined to young or old, or left or right.
Instead, End of History be damned, there is a growing sense on both sides of the aisle, and among all generations, that the free marketplace of ideas is broken. Everyone seems to believe that the inferior and dangerous ideas of their enemies are unfairly gaining ground; therefore, the words and beliefs of those enemies must be fair game for suppression.
And yes, attempts to shut down Julius Caesar like attempts to shut down conservative campus speakers are about objections to words and beliefs. They are not about protecting politicians or vulnerable minority groups from physical harm, despite the claims of would-be censors.
If this were really about blocking public entertainment that put lives at risk, youd find more Trump fans and college students alike disrupting football games.
In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare hinted that he expected his play to offer lessons for generations to come, though perhaps not the ones his characters believe they are offering.
How many ages hence/Shall this our lofty scene be acted over/In states unborn and accents yet unknown! declaims Cassius, after proudly smearing himself with the slain Caesars blood.
Censors willing, lets hope Cassius prediction continues to hold true.
Catherine Rampell (crampell@washpost.com) was a reporter for The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education before joining The Washington Post as a columnist.
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Disrupting 'Caesar' play mostly about censorship - The Register-Guard
June 21, 2017 GDANSK, POLAND Housed in a $134-million, state-of-the-art building, Polands Museum of the Second World War opened early this spring. The museum, which took more than five years to construct, tells the story of Polands war experiences, which given the way the country is sandwiched between Germany and Russia are among the most tragic of all the conflict.
But even before the museum opened, it was already mired in controversy. The museums acting director, Karol Nawrocki hired when former director Pawel Machcewicz was fired, two weeks after the museum opened has complained that the exhibits about the rise of communism are too light, and the music is too happy, underplaying how deeply the political ideology inflicted damage on the Polish people.He has already indicated that he will be making changes to some exhibits.
In Hungary, meanwhile, it is a university that is in the sights of the government.Last week, students were busy finishing their spring term classes at Central European University, founded by American philanthropist George Soros. But even as faculty and students swarmed through the CEU buildings, clustered in the elegant heart of Budapest, a new law was taking aim at the Hungarian- and American-accredited university.
Both Polands Museum of the Second World War and Hungarys CEU one brand new, the other formed at the fall of communism have been seen as symbols of the advances in free thought and open societies in post-Soviet Europe. And the fact that both have become targets of their ruling governments is a sign, some critics say, of government attempts to control cultural and historic narratives and undermine academic freedom to consolidate political control.
The moves in central Europe hark back to an earlier era, in contrast to the anti-immigrant, anti-globalist nationalism taking root in western Europe, says Anton Pelinka, a professor of nationalism studies at CEU. The French nationalistic renaissance or German nationalistic renaissance is not about Alsace-Lorraine, says Professor Pelinka, referring to the historical land dispute. But Hungarian and Polish nationalism is very old fashioned. Taboos were perpetuated under communist rule, he says.But now, post-communist nationalistic regimes have created new taboos.
The war museum opened in March in the center of Gdansk, near a post office that was one of the first places Germans attacked the country during the war.It was commissioned in 2008 by then-Prime Minister Donald Tusk, today president of the European Council, and was intended to look at the war through an international lens. But the museum was barely open before the ultraconservative Law and Justice party (PiS) firedMr. Machcewicz and announced that some of the exhibits would change.
Mr. Nawrocki, the current director, says the museum the most expensive ever built in Poland has great potential. But I don't get [from the current exhibitions] the answer to a basic question what we Poles want to tell the world about our war experience, he says.
Poland suffered enormously in World War II, with 20 percent or more of its population killed,borders redrawn, and the war ending in communist rule. The new museum was not intended to diminish the Polish experience, says Machcewicz.But part of its purpose, he says, to tell a fuller story about the war, which may break ground for Poles, who havetended to cling to black-and-white ideas about victims and perpetrators.
One of the exhibits includes house keys that belonged to Jews in the village of Jedwabne, who were killed by their Polish neighbors with help from Nazis soldiers. The exhibits also spend time on atrocitiesperpetrated by the Soviet Union, as well ason the 3 million Russian soldiers who suffered in German captivity. The museum pushes Poles from the comfort zone, Machcewicz says, because we show how other nations suffered during the war.
Poles views are mixed, with some welcoming a new perspective, and others rejecting it. Kazimierz Burzynski, a retiree from Gdansk, says he is disappointed that there is not more about Poland in an educational center at the museum.But he also faults PiS opponents for politicizing the issue for political gain. [They are] discussing our issues abroad, involving foreigners in our discussion.
Internationally, the debate in Hungary has resonated even more widely.The Hungarian parliament passed a higher education law in April that effectively singles out the CEU, as it would require the school to open a campus in New York, where it is registered, or cease operations in Budapest.The university has announced that it will continue to operate in academic year 2017-2018, but its long-term future is now unclear. Negotiations between Hungary and the state of New York are expected later this month in an effort to find a solution before October, when the schools license to operate can be withdrawn under the new law.
The university was founded by Mr. Soros who was born in Hungary in 1991, with the stated intent of helping to usher in democracy in post-Soviet Europe. It has been operating in Budapest since 1993. Today CEU has over 1,400 students, including many who are seen as leaders in the region,and it is considered a major center of independent scholarship. But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who has said that he sees illiberal democracy as the right path for Hungary says that the university has cheated by violating Hungarian rules, and that no institution should enjoy an unfair advantage.
For many observers, the new law has more to do with Mr. Soros as symbol of liberalism than with academic censorship.It is not about attacking academic freedom, its more like generating a conflict between the government and more pro-Western organizations or figures like George Soros,says Dniel Mikecz, an expert on social movements at the Republikon Institute. It is much easier to campaign with a scapegoat as enemy of the state. You dont have to raise the salaries of public servants, or introduce such benefits for the people.
Whatever Orbans motivations for moving against CEU, many observers fear its an open Hungarian society that is at stake. Orban has also clamped down on funding for NGOs and independent media, and rolled back checks and balances on the Hungarian constitution.
Globally, the fight over the CEU has stirred a firm response.
Two dozen Nobel laureates and academics and institutions around the world have declared support for the university. The law threatening its existence has been rebuked by the European Parliament, which started infringement proceedings against Hungary, prompting tens of thousands of protestors to the streets.I think free institutions and academic freedom strike a chord with a lot of people. It is a core democratic value. It is a core European value, says Michael Ignatieff, the president and rector of CEU.
For many of todays Europeans, its discomfiting to see politicians fighting for control of higher education and other cultural institutions. Machcewicz, a historian, says PiS views historic policy as one of its main pillars. He says the Polish government has set out to achieve control in ways that range from censuring art to announcing plans for new historic museums.
In rejecting our exhibition I see a growing anti-EU and xenophobic atmosphere, a rejection of Europe and multiculturalism, he says. While he says he sees a comparison between the Hungarian government's move against the CEU and the Polish government's decisions about his former museum, he characterizes Orbans move as a cynical power grab, while in Poland he suggests that something deeper is stirring. The Polish right wants power, too, but it is more ideological and radical, he says. The current government is striving for a cultural revolution in Poland.
Its not a direction that sits well with some Polish citizens. Sabina Woch is visiting the Gdansk museum with her 10-month-old son and her in-laws, eager to see the museums exhibits before the government makes any changes. World War II did not take place only in Poland or Europe, and its important to know what was happening in other continents, she says. Politicians should not decide who should run such institutions like a museum; its not their role.
Sara Miller Llana contributed reporting to this story from Paris.
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Moves against Polish museum and Hungarian university stir fears of ... - Christian Science Monitor
Chris Finan
CONTACT: Jas Chana, NCAC Communications Director jas@ncac.org, 212-807-6222 ext.107
New York, NY, June 21, 2017- The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), an alliance of 56 national non-profit organizations, announced today that it has hired Christopher M. Finan as its next executive director. Joan Bertin, the current executive director, is stepping down after leading the organization for 20 years. NCAC promotes freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and opposes censorship in all its forms.
We are indeed lucky that a free expression advocate the caliber of Chris Finan has agreed to lead the NCAC to its next chapter, said Jon Anderson, chair of the NCAC Board of Directors and president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing. In this most challenging of times for First Amendment rights, we need someone with the experience and reputation that Chris brings to the table in protecting the rights of all Americans to express themselves as they choose.
Finan has a long career as a free speech activist. He is currently director of American Booksellers for Free Expression, part of the American Booksellers Association (ABA). In 1982, he joined Media Coalition, a trade association that defends the First Amendment rights of booksellers, publishers, librarians and others who produce and distribute First Amendment-protected material. In 1998, he became president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. The foundation merged with ABA in 2015.
Finan has worked closely with NCAC as a member of the board of directors and as a board chair. In 2007, he and Bertin created NCACs Kids Right to Read Project, which supports parents, students, teachers and librarians who are fighting efforts to ban books in schools and libraries.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to lead an organization that plays such an important role in protecting free expression. I am also very fortunate to be succeeding Joan Bertin, who has led NCACs vigorous defense of free speech during a time of growing censorship pressure, Finan said.
As examples of NCACs recent advocacy, Finan pointed to statements defending publishers who are pressured to censor books that some critics consider offensive, condemning the Trump administrations attacks on the press and criticizing the Walker Art Centers decision to dismantle a sculpture after accusations that it was cultural appropriation.
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National Coalition Against Censorship Chooses New Leader - Blogging Censorship
Deutsche Welle | Qatar's censorship in Berlin Deutsche Welle A freshly renovated villa from 1907 in a wealthy Berlin suburb belongs to the state of Qatar. It's now being used as the embassy's Arab Cultural House. But the topless figure in front of the building has vanished. |
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Qatar's censorship in Berlin - Deutsche Welle