Franz OBERMAYR - Clashes in Sudan and subsequent media censorship - 10-10-2013
Franz OBERMAYR - Clashes in Sudan and subsequent media censorship - 10-10-2013.
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Franz OBERMAYR - Clashes in Sudan and subsequent media censorship - 10-10-2013 - Video
A world of SOPA PIPA ACTA Internet Censorship
By: Mike Vogel
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A world of SOPA PIPA ACTA Internet Censorship - Video
By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL
This week Iran's new Culture Minister Ali Jannati denounced book censorship under the administration of former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and said if they could, censors would have banned the Koran, which is considered to be the word of God by Muslims.
That doesn't mean censorship will necessarily ease anytime soon, seeing as Jannati also suggested that the government should not allow problematic books "to poison" society.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also, in the past, spoken against "harmful books."
What it is like for authors in Iran to try to get their work past censors?
Writers, translators, and publishers in Iran have to navigate a bureaucratic labyrinth in order to see their writings published.
All books are submitted to the Culture Ministry for review by censors who make sure they conform to written and unwritten rules and principles -- and the censors' own interpretations of those rules.
Books that are deemed anti-Islamic, immoral, or against Iran's security are banned outright. Other books have problematic words or whole chapters cut out. Books can also be banned years after being published.
Books are read by one or more censors. Those in charge of censorship reportedly use software to search for banned words such as references to female body parts. The review process and back-and-forth between censors and the authors and publishers can take weeks, months, or even years.
Iranian Culture Minister Ali Jannati speaking against book censorship(source: Etemaad daily)
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Iran's Kafkaesque Book Censorship
FMT LETTER: From the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), via e-mail
The Sept 19 filing of charges against activist Lena Hendry for the screening of a documentary which was not approved by the Film Censorship Board has once again brought into focus the immense control of the state over freedom of expression.
Lena Hendry, along with Arul Prakkash and Anna Har, of the NGO Pusat Komas were invited for questioning immediately after the July 3, 2013 screening of the film No Fire Zone, the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, a documentary about the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka in 2009.
It took authorities two-and-a-half months to file charges for violating the Film Censorship Act of 2002, but only against Lena Hendry.
The main issue here is that the government has opted to impose the old-fashioned law for the screening of a human rights-themed documentary, with a topic that is certainly of public interest: impunity of the state. Furthermore, the government has specifically targeted a person whose work is dedicated to promoting human rights.
Sri Lankas culpability for possible war crimes during final offensive against the Tamil separatist insurgency in 2009 has been the subject of much concern in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
It does not take a genius to guess that the Sri Lankan government is trying to prevent screenings of the film, and uses diplomatic pressure to prevent No Fire Zone in other countries. And in this case, they did.
With the filing of charges against Hendry, Malaysia will thus be seen as buckling under diplomatic pressure to file charges against its own citizen for showing a human rights film about another country.
Of course, the Home Ministry can always argue that it has to impose what the law says. And true enough, Pusat Komas has received warning letters from the Film Censorship board about their human rights film showings since 2009.
But their actions merely point to the absurdity of the Film Censorship Law: it is biased. Films produced or sponsored by the state are exempt from censorship.
Read more from the original source:
Time to abolish censorship
Iran official slams censorship policy By Golnaz Esfandiari
Iranian Culture Minister Ali Jannati has said that book censorship was too strict under the country's former government. In comments quoted by Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency on October 8, Jannati said censors would have rejected the Koran, which Muslims believe is a revelation by God.
"If the Koran hadn't been sent by God and we had handed it to book censors, they wouldn't have issued permission to publish it and would have argued that some of the words in it are against public virtue," he said.
Jannati said he had reviewed some of the titles that the administration of former Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad
censored and concluded that in many cases, censors had objected to "irrelevant" issues.
He also said in many instances censors had based their decisions on personal opinions, and added that the reviewers lacked the necessary expertise.
Jannati has been culture minister since August after being chosen by Hassan Rouhani, the moderate cleric who was elected president in June and who has promised to give Iranians more freedoms.
But limits remain. Jannati hedged his comments by also saying that book censorship will continue in Iran because the government must act in accordance with rulings made by the Supreme National Security Council and the parliament.
"How can we allow some problematic books to poison the society?" he asked.
Jannati's comments about Iran's aggressive censorship of literary materials aren't likely to surprise the Iranian writers and publishers who have experienced firsthand the draconian rules enforced by Ahmadinejad's Culture Ministry.
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Iran official slams censorship policy