Archive for the ‘Censorship’ Category

Director Ceylon zgn zelik On ‘Inflame’ and Censorship in … – Variety

Inflame (Kaygi), a first feature by Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik, is a psychological thriller centered on a woman who suffers recurring nightmares of working on a TV news channel. She lives alone in an apartment left to her by her parents, who died in a car crash 20 years earlier. But the nightmares are actually memories, and her parents could still be alive. Inflame is the only Turkish film playing this year at the Berlin Film Festival, where it world premiered Sunday (Feb. 12) in the Panorama section.

Ozelik, a former movie critic on television,spoke to Variety about how the film, written with guidance from the Sundance Film Institutes Screenwriters Lab in Istanbul, reflects her countrys recent history and current climate. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Inflame germinated at a time when the situation in Turkey was less turbulent. Can you talk to me about the choice of title?

The Turkish title is Kaygi, which is actually a different word. Kaygi in Turkish means worry or anxiety. Its a very popular word in Turkey now. The Sundance lab in Turkey helped me come up with the English-language title.

How do you feel about the idea that due to the title people are going to associate it with the post-coup climate?

The film actually turns on something that happened in the 90s. The protagonist is searching for some kind of sense of her parents death. She has been brought up thinking they died in a car accident. Its about memory and forgetting, but also about the oblivion generated by a collaboration between the government and mass media. When I started writing this film I started asking myself, How much can one forget? Is there a limit to this oblivion? It was unavoidable that the main character was a journalist working in the mainstream media, as I did.

How is your experience working in Turkish TV reflected in the film?

Though I never worked as a news journalist, I observed my friends and co-workers in situations that I could not actually put in the script because the audience would think that its overwritten, exaggerated. For almost two years, I worked for this production company that worked directly for government TV. They would get names of certain people that had to be excluded from the news, especially from social media.

Yet this film is partly funded by the government.

Yes, the Ministry of Culture has seen a longer version of the film, in order for it to get financing.

Can you tell me how the Sundance lab helped you with the script?

I was accepted into the lab with just a 60-page draft. I had two tutors, Naomi Foner and Howard Rodman, who were very helpful. They explained to me what was missing in terms of the connections between the films themes. I was also told that Inflame was reminiscent of Polanskis The Tenant, which made me very happy because I was drawing inspiration from that film. They encouraged me, and this was very meaningful to me.

How deliberate was the choice of venturing into thriller territory?

I just love thrillers; I am crazy about them. The apartment is a very strong symbolic element that you have in many thrillers, especially those that deal with traumatic events from the past. In this case, history seeps into the apartment, and the most powerful support [to this narrative device] comes from the sound.

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Director Ceylon zgn zelik On 'Inflame' and Censorship in ... - Variety

Mob censorship can’t be tolerated – DesMoinesRegister.com

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Sheldon Rabinowitz, Des Moines, Letter to the Editor 6:21 p.m. CT Feb. 10, 2017

Students from City and West High lead protesters down the pedestrian mall during a rally against President Trump's travel ban on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

If we really have free speech in this country, as provided by law, then any lawful program should be able to be held on any campus. Whether any of us, including university administration or the news media, agree with the sponsors or their subject matter, should have nothing to do with the right to hold the program.

Lawful protest is to be respected, but universities and the local government have the responsibility to protect the people and the property from rioters. Are we to be ruled by anarchists and have mob rule? If the police need to get tough to enforce the law, so be it.

If universities knuckle under threats of rioters, it will only encourage more censorship of what the mob does not want to hear, all across the country.

Sheldon Rabinowitz, Des Moines

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What Wikipedia’s Daily Mail ‘Ban’ Tells Us About The Future Of Online Censorship – Forbes


Forbes
What Wikipedia's Daily Mail 'Ban' Tells Us About The Future Of Online Censorship
Forbes
How was this decision made, what kind of data fed into this decision-making process and what does it tell us about the future of censorship and who decides what is real on the Internet, especially as social media platforms increasingly play the role ...

and more »

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What Wikipedia's Daily Mail 'Ban' Tells Us About The Future Of Online Censorship - Forbes

Censorship versus free speech at a very local level – San Francisco Chronicle

Free expression seems to be top of mind in the Bay Area these days. Ive been thinking about it, too but not in the context of how one should respond to a decadent disrupter whos chosen to threaten vulnerable people as part of his personal brand.

No, Ive been thinking not about Berkeley but about a quieter case in San Jose.

Thats where the Rev. Jeff Moore, a counselor at Independence High School in San Jose and president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley branch of the NAACP, was putting together the annual Black History Month display for the district office of East Side Union High School District.

Moore had seen and liked the work of Mark Harris, 47, a San Francisco painter and mixed-media artist. So he asked Harris to pull together a small exhibit of his work. Harris agreed. He drove down to San Jose and installed the work in the districts display cases on Jan. 30.

On Jan. 31, Harris woke up to a two-line email from Moore, saying that his work had been taken down.

So began a local censorship controversy thats stretched into a third week. Multiple media outlets have covered the story, and the National Coalition Against Censorship has taken an interest.

I should mention that Harris was an acquaintance of mine before any of this happened.

"Immigration Theory," a mixed-media piece by Mark Harris

"Immigration Theory," a mixed-media piece by Mark Harris

But my hunch is that Id probably have the same response even if I didnt know him: oh, no.

Pretty much, Harris said, Ive never had this happen before. Its disappointing because we have to tackle these issues if were going to come together as a country. And what better place to start this conversation than a school district?

Moore said hed hung Black History Month displays at the district for several years in a row, with no problems. Previous displays had been portraits of civil rights leaders, libraries of slave narratives and other pieces from Moores home.

This year, I thought these paintings were educational and gave us a chance to be in a dialogue with what America is talking about, Moore said.

The paintings are definitely political, verging on agit-prop: They juxtapose wholesome, 1950s-era kitsch images of white America with images of slavery, the Confederate flag and anti-police-brutality protests. These are certainly ideas that are in the public conversation.

I called Chris Funk, the superintendent who removed the paintings. He described the incident as a big misunderstanding.

This was an unfortunate incident that had nothing to do with Mark Harris, Funk said. It was about an employee who didnt have permission to display that work.

Moore didnt receive district approval for the contents of the display before inviting Harris to install his work, Funk said. After Harris left, Funk said he was called out of a meeting because parents and staff members had complained about the works content.

So he took all of it down.

When the public comes into the district office, they have an expectation that they shouldnt be surprised by provocative or political artwork, Funk said. Our responsibility is to provide a safe place for discussion, not to push an agenda.

Den of Iniquity, a mixed-media piece by Mark Harris.

Den of Iniquity, a mixed-media piece by Mark Harris.

I didnt find this convincing, for a few reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that children watch adults in classrooms push agendas each and every day.

The idea of a neutral, idea-free education may be a comforting one for adults, but no child would be naive enough to believe it, and theyre right.

The second reason I found Funks argument unconvincing is the matter of providing the specific students at East Side Union High School District with a safe place for discussion. East Side Union is a majority-minority school district 46 percent of the students are Latino, 34 percent are Asian. Only 8 percent of students are white, as is Funk.

How in the world, I asked him, can you say youre providing those students with a safe place for discussion if the political viewpoints of people of color African Americans, in this case are considered to be too controversial to be admitted?

Funk returned to the idea of a process that hadnt been followed.

The good news is that all of the attention inspired Harris and Funk to sit down and hammer out a solution. At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, the districts office will host a workshop with Harris, the students and their parents.

The workshop is open to all of the districts students, parents and with an RSVP the public. Harris plans to lead the students through a discussion of his work and ask them to talk about their own reactions.

Its a great moment to talk about these issues, and I want the kids to feel empowered to do so, Harris said. Weve been ingrained to not discuss this stuff, and its not healthy.

Tell me about it. If the district officials had been a little more comfortable talking about difficult issues, this entire mess could have been prevented.

Caille Millner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cmillner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @caillemillner

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Censorship versus free speech at a very local level - San Francisco Chronicle

TOR’s Ooniprobe App Tests Your Internet Speed And Censorship Level – Fossbytes

Short Bytes: Tor Project has released its new internet speed and censorship level test app. Known as Ooniprobe, this free and open source app performs three different tests, including a test for finding out blocked websites on your network. You can download the app for your Android and iOS devices.

Now, Tor Project has releasedanewapp, Ooniprobe, that can be installed on Android and iOS smartphones.Ooniprobeapp has been designed to run various tests for checking your internet speed and censorship levels. Before you can actually use the app to run different tests, you need to read some informational pages and pass a quick test.

By running these tests on Tors Ooniprobe app, you can find out:

But, how does Ooniprobeinternetspeed test app performs these functions? Let me explain the three above mentioned tests one by one.

Ooniprobes Web Connectivity Test checks whether websites are blocked using DNS tampering, TCP/IP blocking, or by using a transparentHTTP proxy. By knowing the type of interference, you can take appropriate measures,

Its HTTP Invalid Request Line test looks for the systems within the network that are used for censorship, traffic manipulation, andsurveillance.

Ooniprobes Internet Speed and performance test measures the internet speed by connecting it to nearby M-Lab servers. During the process, the test collects low-level TCP/IP information that can be used to calculate the speed and performance of thenetwork.

After the tests, you are shown test results. Red color shows connection issues. You can tap on the given options to see detailed results.

All OONI tests are based on free and open source software. You can find the source code of the same on GitHub. To do so, follow this link.

Ooniprobeapp for internet speed and censorship level test is available for Android and iOSdevices.

Did you find Ooniprobeinternet testing app helpful? Dont forget to drop your views and comments.

Also Read:BitChute: A YouTube Powered By BitTorrent Is Here With No Censorship

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TOR's Ooniprobe App Tests Your Internet Speed And Censorship Level - Fossbytes