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The worst countries for press freedom are expected to increase control of the Internet, says Paris-based RSF

Authoritarian governments are doubling down on press censorship and becoming more adept at blocking Internet access to uncensored news sources, according to the annual World Press Freedom Index that will be published on Thursday.

The report, from Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, saw many countries lose points this year as threats against reporters and press freedom increased. They included governments using national security as an excuse to track reporters and their sources; threats from para-military, organized crime and terrorist groups; government interference in the media, and reporters being targeted for covering demonstrations.

The five countries ranked highest for press freedom were all in Northern Europe, while the U.S. ranked 49th, down 3 places from last year, in part because of a crackdown on government whistle blowers under President Barack Obama.

Most of the bottom 20 countries saw their ratings fall after greater efforts to control free access to information.

"With complete control of the traditional media assured, reining in the Internet is the next big task," said the report.

China was said to be "a pioneer" in Internet censorship, after blocking access to all Google services during the last year and stamping out domestic coverage of the Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong and the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Iran continues to pursue a national intranet that will keep citizens off the global Internet, and it arrested people who were using messaging apps WhatsApp, Viber and Tango. In Cuba, Internet access remains difficult to obtain and expensive, the report said.

Some countries, including Kazakhstan, have taken to blocking or banning websites without the need for court orders, while Uzbekistan, Belarus, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have cracked down on bloggers.

The two bottom-ranked countries, North Korea and Eritrea, run censorship regimes that ensure citizens have virtually no access to free information.

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More online censorship coming to closed countries, says report

One great thing about living in Japan is the consideration, or omoiyari, people here commonly show for others. My newspaper delivery guy climbs the 25 steps to my front door and deposits a copy of The Japan Times in my mailbox every morning, rain or shine. His colleagues in the U.S. my home country might toss the paper from a moving vehicle in the general direction of a customers front yard. Both are just doing their jobs, but my guy considerately spares me effort (and exercise), at no profit to himself.

Jishuku, often translated as self-restraint, can also be framed as an expression of consideration. When Emperor Hirohito was dying of terminal cancer in 1988, many journalists knew the truth, but the story did not run on the front pages of Japans major newspapers. It could be argued that the purpose of this media jishuku was to spare not only the Emperor himself, but the Imperial Family and the Japanese people in general from shock and distress.

But jishuku has come to have another, more troubling meaning: self-censorship. Following the Emperor Hirohitos death on Jan. 7, 1989, normal TV programming was suspended for days in favor of eulogistic documentaries and reverential news shows, while businesses closed and events were canceled by the thousands. I thought at the time it was uncanny as though the postwar period, with its Occupation-supported freedom of expression, never happened.

Jishuku is not limited to Japans Imperial system, however. Instead, the media, including the supposedly free-spirited talents it hosts, has long practiced a type of self-censorship that is less an expression of consideration than a knuckling under to corporate and governmental power and, now, the angry voices on the Internet.

After iconic actor Ken Takakura died on Nov. 10, 2014, the Tokyo Shimbun noted that the theme song of Abashiri Bangaichi (Abashiri Prison), the 1965 movie that became his breakout hit, had been subject to media jishuku since the 1970s. Recorded by Takakura himself and based on a folk song, the tune became a hit, but radio stations and TV broadcasters kept it off the air for decades because its lyrics were deemed to be supportive of criminal acts. This was done under the cover of a voluntary ban by the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (Minporen) on songs with problematic lyrics. Minporen has long since dropped the lyrics-restricting rule, but as film director Tatsuya Mori told the Tokyo Shimbun, The tendency of the media to self-regulate (free expression) hasnt changed at all.

Examples of similar jishuku have multiplied since the end of 2014, beginning with popular comedy duo Bakusho Mondai and veteran lead singer for the Southern All Stars, Keisuke Kuwata, making abject public apologies after venturing some mild criticisms of authority.

Bakusho Mondais Yuji Tanaka had complained to a TBS radio audience on Jan. 7 that public broadcaster NHK had nixed the duos proposed political gags for a New Years show. Earlier, at a Dec. 28 concert with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in attendance, Kuwata had mocked Abes decision to call a snap election last fall. Also, in a performance on NHKs New Years Eve show Kohaku Utagassen (Red and White Song Contest), Kuwata sung other lyrics some interpreted as critical of Abes conservative-leaning administration.

Amid the ensuing controversy, both Kuwata and Tanaka apologized and recanted.

These are mainstream talents working in a media environment that is hypersensitive to anything resembling controversy. Its hardly surprising that, following their slip-ups, they would quickly toe the agency or broadcaster line. Nonetheless, given the political nature of their mini-scandals, with much of the online outrage coming from the far-right side of the political spectrum, it was hard not to hear free-speech alarm bells ringing.

Those bells have gotten louder with the local media reaction to the capture of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State group, climaxing with the death of freelance video journalist Kenji Goto on Feb. 1. In response, The Fuji TV network pushed back the broadcast of an episode of the anime Ansatsu Kyoshitsu (Assassination Classroom) that featured a knife. A Jan. 31 broadcast of the Tantei Kageki Milky Holmes TD (Detective Opera Milky Holmes TD) animation series about the adventures of girl detectives was also postponed for its ransom-themed story.

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Is Japanese cinema sinking into a self-censorship swamp?

Sonam Kapoor: I Don #39;t Believe In Censorship! Supports AIB roast!
Sonam Kapoor looked stunning as she was present to unveil Ciroc Filmfare Style Glamour Awards, a new event to honour the stars of the entertainment world. She spoke about filmfare and shared...

By: BiscootTV

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Sonam Kapoor: I Don't Believe In Censorship! Supports AIB roast! - Video

A new exhibit responds to the long practice of censorship of LGBT art.

Sexuality has been, and continues to be, used as a tool to prohibit LGBT cultural artwork. This exhibit at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, curated by Jennifer Tyburczy, includes work spanning three decades that has been censored, and in some cases vandalized.

Museum director Hunter O'Hanian says, The focus of this exhibition will be the work which has been excluded from other mainstream institutions due to its gay content. Going back to the Culture Wars of the 1980s, the exhibition landscape has changed as certain works of art have been excluded because they were considered offensive or too risky. While in some ways we live in a time which appears more tolerant, exclusion of artwork, and certain facts about some artists, are still excluded because of the persons sexual orientation.

Guest curator Jennifer Tyburczy says, The exhibition draws inspiration from the innovative responses to watershed moments in the history of censoring LGBTQ art in Canada, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States. In concept, the show is principally drawn from two events: the censorship of Robert Mapplethorpes art in the 1980s and 1990s and the more recent withdrawal of David Wojnarowiczs A Fire in My Belly from the National Portrait Gallery in 2010. In practice, it seizes on the international fame of these controversies to delve deeper into the many ways that censorship functions in queer artistic life.

Irreverent: A Celebration of Censorship The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art February 13May 3 Public Opening: February 13, 2015, 68 p.m.

Zanele Muholi, excerpt from "Being" series, 2007, digital print, 48 x 39 in. Courtesy of the artist.

In the "Being" series (2007), Zanele Muholi interrogates black lesbian relationships and safer sex. On the surface, the visuals capture couples in intimate positions and moments showing their love for each other. However, Muholis photographs also critique HIV/AIDS prevention programming in South Africa, and how, in her view, it has failed women who have sex with other women. For years, Muholi has documented gay, lesbian, and transgender people in South Africa and beyond. In April 2012, Muholis apartment was broken into while she and her partner were away. The thieves took nothing but her archives, and little has been done to retrieve her works.

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Irreverent: A Celebration of Censorship

Drawful - Episode 1 - Censorship
Join Dylan, Nancy, Nicky, Tony, Tyler and Xander as they draw terribly offensive pictures for funzies! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

By: Team Blue Coin

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Drawful - Episode 1 - Censorship - Video