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83-744: It evolved out of the standing committee of journalists, which was formed in late 1991. The standing committee was formed by a group of journalists and media personnel as a reaction to the then government of Sri Lanka introducing a Media Commission. Since then FMM has been active in all areas relating to media freedom, defending the rights of journalists and media people. It also has called for reform of legislation, agitating against censorship and intimidation of media personnel and standing for broad principles of democratic and human rights . It also has developed an extensive network of links with other media freedom and human rights groups locally and internationally. The Sri Lankan defense ministry alleged that FMM

166-498: A Pew Research Center and the Columbia Journalism Review survey, "About one-quarter of the local and national journalists say they have purposely avoided newsworthy stories, while nearly as many acknowledge they have softened the tone of stories to benefit the interests of their news organizations. Fully four-in-ten (41%) admit they have engaged in either or both of these practices." Threats to media freedom have shown

249-427: A 'public good' under section 4, and that they must judge the book as a whole. Inviting them to consider as a test of whether it would deprave or corrupt he asked "Would you approve of your young sons, young daughters—because girls can read as well as boys—reading this book? Is it a book you would have lying around your own house? Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?" This last question

332-516: A London's magistrate court in 2015 for being "indecent" and their copies had been removed from the online Tate gallery . A 1980 Israeli law forbade banned artwork composed of the four colours of the Palestinian flag , and Palestinians were arrested for displaying such artwork or even for carrying sliced melons with the same pattern. Moath al-Alwi is a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who creates model ships as an expression of art. Alwi does so with

415-525: A U.S. court (overruled several months later), it took until 21 July 1959 for a U.S. court to rule that the first authorised unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover (published by Grove ) was not obscene. On 16 August 1960, Penguin published the first unexpurgated English edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover . On 18 March 1960 the Chief Constable of Peterborough wrote to the DPP seeking advice regarding

498-545: A deciding influence on the trial the sociologist and lecturer in English Literature Richard Hoggart was called to testify to the literary value of Lady Chatterley's Lover . In a detailed textual analysis of the book under defence examination, Hoggart was asked about the purpose of the obscene words in the book: "[t]he first effect, when I first read it was some shock, because they don't go into polite literature normally. Then as one read further on one found

581-471: A defence of innocent dissemination , gave publishers a right of defence against a destruction order, provided the right of appeal, and limited the penalty of conviction. The Act came into force on 30 August 1959. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Sir Theobald Mathew , made submission to the Bill's Commons Select Committee on 27 May 1957 that his office would "take into account the existing reputation of

664-475: A defence of public good, broadly defined as a work of artistic or scientific merit, intended to exclude literature from the scope of the law while still permitting the prosecution of pornography or such works that would under section 2 of the Act "tend to deprave and corrupt persons likely to read it". The Act also required the court to consider the work as a whole, put a time limit on prosecutions, provided booksellers with

747-429: A greater risk of casualties among one's own forces and could possibly lead to loss of the overall conflict. During World War I letters written by British soldiers would have to go through censorship. This consisted of officers going through letters with a black marker and crossing out anything which might compromise operational secrecy before the letter was sent. The World War II catchphrase " Loose lips sink ships "

830-508: A higher chance of collective action. It is not important whether the criticism is supportive or unsupportive of the states' leaders, the main priority of censoring certain social media posts is to make sure that no big actions are being made due to something that was said on the internet. Posts that challenge the Party's political leading role in the Chinese government are more likely to be censored due to

913-450: A long time the word 'puritanical' has been extended to mean somebody who is against anything which is pleasurable, particularly sex. The proper meaning of it, to a literary man or to a linguist, is somebody who belongs to the tradition of British Puritanism generally, and the distinguishing feature of that is an intense sense of responsibility for one's conscience. In this sense the book is puritanical." During examination of James Hemming

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996-565: A private limited edition of 1000 copies. Martin Secker refused to publish the work in this form, forcing Lawrence to publish the first edition of the final version himself without copyright protection in July 1928. That August, U.S. customs confiscated imported copies of this edition, as indeed did Scotland Yard. Although The First Lady Chatterley published by the Dial Press in 1944 was declared obscene by

1079-545: A significant increase in Europe in recent years, according to a study published in April 2017 by the Council of Europe . This results in a fear of physical or psychological violence, and the ultimate result is self-censorship by journalists. Copy approval is the right to read and amend an article, usually an interview, before publication. Many publications refuse to give copy approval but it

1162-455: A study to determine what caused social media posts to be censored and found that posts mentioning the government were not more or less likely to be deleted if they were supportive or critical of the government. Posts mentioning collective action were more likely to be deleted than those that had not mentioned collective action. Currently, social media censorship appears primarily as a way to restrict Internet users' ability to organize protests. For

1245-602: Is a controversial organization. It has been accused of unprofessionalism and partiality. This journalism -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech , public communication, or other information . This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments , private institutions. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, it

1328-480: Is also caused by market forces which privatize and establish commodification of certain information that is not accessible by the general public, primarily because of the cost associated with commodified information such as academic journals, industry reports and pay to use repositories. The concept was illustrated as a censorship pyramid that was conceptualized by primarily Julian Assange , along with Andy Müller-Maguhn , Jacob Appelbaum and Jérémie Zimmermann , in

1411-451: Is carried out with the intent of preventing the release of information that might be useful to an enemy. Typically it involves keeping times or locations secret, or delaying the release of information (e.g., an operational objective) until it is of no possible use to enemy forces. The moral issues here are often seen as somewhat different, as the proponents of this form of censorship argue that the release of tactical information usually presents

1494-763: Is extremely controversial, as in the case of the Holocaust (or Holocaust denial ), Bombing of Dresden , the Nanking Massacre as found with Japanese history textbook controversies , the Armenian genocide , the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 , and the Winter Soldier Investigation of the Vietnam War . In the context of secondary school education, the way facts and history are presented greatly influences

1577-410: Is increasingly becoming common practice when dealing with publicity anxious celebrities. Picture approval is the right given to an individual to choose which photos will be published and which will not. Robert Redford is well known for insisting upon picture approval. Writer approval is when writers are chosen based on whether they will write flattering articles or not. Hollywood publicist Pat Kingsley

1660-436: Is known for banning certain writers who wrote undesirably about one of her clients from interviewing any of her other clients. Flooding the public, often through online social networks , with false or misleading information is sometimes called "reverse censorship". American legal scholar Tim Wu has explained that this type of information control, sometimes by state actors , can "distort or drown out disfavored speech through

1743-700: Is referred to as self-censorship . General censorship occurs in a variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press , radio, television, and the Internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security , to control obscenity , pornography , and hate speech , to protect children or other vulnerable groups, to promote or restrict political or religious views, and to prevent slander and libel . Specific rules and regulations regarding censorship vary between legal jurisdictions and/or private organizations. In 399 BC, Greek philosopher, Socrates , while defying attempts by

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1826-404: Is that in future, in fairness to the author, the book must be judged as a whole." In reference to the desirability of publication Gardiner invited the jury to consider that, "In my submission to you the defendants have shown, on the balance of probabilities, that it would be for the public good that this book should be generally available. I say on the balance of probabilities because ... where

1909-446: Is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside the country. Thus censors must work to prevent access to information even though they lack physical or legal control over the websites themselves. This in turn requires the use of technical censorship methods that are unique to the Internet, such as site blocking and content filtering. Furthermore,

1992-468: Is the still withdrawn " Censored Eleven " series of animated cartoons, which may have been innocent then, but are "incorrect" now. Film censorship is carried out by various countries. Film censorship is achieved by censoring the producer or restricting a state citizen. For example, in China the film industry censors LGBT-related films . Filmmakers must resort to finding funds from international investors such as

2075-665: The Arab Spring uprisings , starting in 2010. In response to the use of social media in these protests, the Tunisian government began a hack of Tunisian citizens' Facebook accounts, and reports arose of accounts being deleted. Automated systems can be used to censor social media posts, and therefore limit what citizens can say online. This most notably occurs in China , where social media posts are automatically censored depending on content. In 2013, Harvard political science professor Gary King led

2158-572: The Cypherpunks (book) . Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority. Self-censorship is often practiced by film producers , film directors , publishers , news anchors , journalists , musicians , and other kinds of authors including individuals who use social media . According to

2241-529: The Domain Name System (DNS) a critical component of the Internet is dominated by centralized and few entities. The most widely used DNS root is administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). As an administrator they have rights to shut down and seize domain names when they deem necessary to do so and at most times the direction is from governments. This has been

2324-552: The Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Hunter Biden laptop controversy . On the platform TikTok, certain hashtags have been categorized by the platform's code and determines how viewers can or cannot interact with the content or hashtag specifically. Some shadowbanned tags include: #acab, #GayArab, #gej due to their referencing of certain social movements and LGBTQ identity. As TikTok guidelines are becoming more localized around

2407-517: The Second Macmillan ministry to ban all such publications on 14 December 1960; peers exchanged 18,770 words but voted down his motion in a spoken vote. Had the vote succeeded, it still would have needed backing from the House of Commons to create any legal changes. Richard Hoggart in his autobiography wrote of the trial: "It has been entered on the agreed if conventional list of literary judgements as

2490-414: The "Ford Foundations" and or produce through an independent film company. Music censorship has been implemented by states, religions, educational systems, families, retailers and lobbying groups – and in most cases they violate international conventions of human rights. Censorship of maps is often employed for military purposes. For example, the technique was used in former East Germany , especially for

2573-458: The Act required proof of criminal intent. Gardiner's contention was that intent to deprave and corrupt was a rebuttable one and hence evidence can be called to prove there was no intent to deprave. In reply, Griffith-Jones cited R v Montalk 1932 that "the offence of uttering and publishing an obscene libel [...] is established as soon as the Prosecution has proved the publication and obscenity of

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2656-471: The Act. Robinson said that while Lawrence's view was not Christian his intention "is to portray the sex relationship as something essentially sacred." He continued "as in a real sense a holy communion. For him flesh was completely sacramental of spirit. His descriptions of sexual relations cannot be taken out of the context of his whole, to me, quite astonishing sensitivity to the beauty and value of all organic relationships." Pressed by Griffith-Jones on whether

2739-488: The Athenian state to censor his philosophical teachings, was accused of collateral charges related to the corruption of Athenian youth and sentenced to death by drinking a poison, hemlock . The details of Socrates's conviction are recorded by Plato as follows. In 399 BC, Socrates went on trial and was subsequently found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety ( asebeia , "not believing in

2822-404: The Chinese government, seeing citizens unhappy with local governance is beneficial as state and national leaders can replace unpopular officials. King and his researchers were able to predict when certain officials would be removed based on the number of unfavorable social media posts. Research has proved that criticism is tolerable on social media sites, therefore it is not censored unless it has

2905-603: The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) does not support these DNS root providers. Unless the censor has total control over all Internet-connected computers, such as in North Korea or Cuba , total censorship of information is very difficult or impossible to achieve due to the underlying distributed technology of the Internet. Pseudonymity and data havens (such as Freenet ) protect free speech using technologies that guarantee material cannot be removed and prevents

2988-524: The Islamic figure Muhammad are also regularly censored. In some secular countries, this is sometimes done to prevent hurting religious sentiments. The content of school textbooks is often an issue of debate, since their target audiences are young people. The term whitewashing is commonly used to refer to revisionism aimed at glossing over difficult or questionable historical events, or a biased presentation thereof. The reporting of military atrocities in history

3071-570: The Japanese and PAL Versions of No More Heroes , blood splatter and gore is removed from the gameplay. Decapitation scenes are implied, but not shown. Scenes of missing body parts after having been cut off, are replaced with the same scene, but showing the body parts fully intact. Surveillance and censorship are different. Surveillance can be performed without censorship, but it is harder to engage in censorship without some form of surveillance. Even when surveillance does not lead directly to censorship,

3154-501: The areas near the border to West Germany in order to make attempts of defection more difficult. Censorship of maps is also applied by Google Maps , where certain areas are grayed out or blacked or areas are purposely left outdated with old imagery. Art is loved and feared because of its evocative power. Destroying or oppressing art can potentially justify its meaning even more. British photographer and visual artist Graham Ovenden 's photos and paintings were ordered to be destroyed by

3237-533: The artistic, sociological and moral value of the book. The prosecution called two witnesses; DI Monahan and Stephen Webb from the Board of Trade . The defence called John Robinson , the Bishop of Woolwich , to elicit "[w]hat, if any, are the ethical merits of this book?" After objection from the prosecution on the relevance of this testimony the judge agreed it satisfied the "other objects" criterion of subsection 2 section 4 of

3320-457: The author, the publisher, the printer" before deciding on prosecution. Roy Jenkins wrote to The Spectator on 26 August 1960 that the DPP's decision to indict Penguin was a misapplication of the law. Lawrence's novel had been the subject of three drafts before the final unexpurgated typewritten transcript was submitted to the Florentine printers on 9 March 1928 with the intention of publishing

3403-520: The basis of the teachings of the religion . This form of censorship has a long history and is practiced in many societies and by many religions. Examples include the Galileo affair , Edict of Compiègne , the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (list of prohibited books) and the condemnation of Salman Rushdie 's novel The Satanic Verses by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . Images of

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3486-412: The book had any instructional value, Robinson admitted it did not but, asked by Gardiner if it were a book Christians ought to view, Robinson said "yes", over the objection of the prosecution that it was for the jury to decide if its publication was justified. Nevertheless, Robinson's statement led to the newspaper headline "A Book All Christians Should Read". In testimony that was later seen to have had

3569-413: The book in all the circumstances." With respect to the moral character of the book he observed: "It is said that this book condemns promiscuity. Does it? [...] But it does [condone promiscuity], doesn't it? The earlier sexual experiences of both parties, then Michaelis, then Mellors – it is said that this is only showing how perfect sexual intercourse can lead to ultimate happiness. Members of

3652-501: The case for the defence: that the book was not obscene under section 2 as it would not deprave or corrupt anyone, and that due to Lawrence's status the work satisfied section 4. That "Lawrence's message, as you have heard, was that the society of his day in England was sick, he thought, and the sickness from which it was suffering was the result of the machine age, the 'bitch-goddess Success', the importance that everybody attached to money, and

3735-614: The case with Wikileaks shutdowns and name seizure events such as the ones executed by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) managed by the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This makes it easy for internet censorship by authorities as they have control over what should or should not be on the Internet. Some activists and researchers have started opting for alternative DNS roots , though

3818-669: The censors was punishable by law, even fatal. The Degenerate Art Exhibition was a historical instance of this, the goal of which was to advertise Nazi values and slander others. Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet . It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of the government or on their own initiative. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship on their own or due to intimidation and fear. The issues associated with Internet censorship are similar to those for offline censorship of more traditional media. One difference

3901-550: The challenges it poses to the Chinese Communist Party. In December 2022 Elon Musk , owner and CEO of Twitter released internal documents from the social media microblogging site to journalists Matt Taibbi , Michael Shellenberger and Bari Weiss . The analysis of these files on Twitter, collectively called, the Twitter Files , explored the content moderation and visibility filtering carried out in collaboration with

3984-414: The circumstances read the book'. You may think that place rather a less burden upon the prosecution than hitherto, that it rather widens the scope of this Act than otherwise, for now, irrespective of whether the person reading the book is one of a rather dull or perhaps retarded or stupid intellect, one whose mind may be open to such influences, there is not any such restricted class. It is anyone who may read

4067-445: The creation and dissemination of fake news , the payment of fake commentators, and the deployment of propaganda robots ." Soft, or indirect, censorship is the practice of influencing news coverage by applying financial pressure on media companies that are deemed critical of a government or its policies and rewarding media outlets and individual journalists who are seen as friendly to the government. Book censorship can be enacted at

4150-463: The degree to which the mind had been stressed at the expense of the body; and that what we ought to do was to re-establish personal relationships, the greatest of which was the relationship between a man and a woman in love, in which there was no shame and nothing wrong, nothing unclean, nothing which anybody was not entitled to discuss." Therefore, the descriptions of sex were necessary and appropriate. The defence then called 35 witnesses to testify to

4233-595: The development of the Internet and censorship technologies: A BBC World Service poll of 27,973 adults in 26 countries, including 14,306 Internet users, was conducted between 30 November 2009 and 7 February 2010. The head of the polling organization felt, overall, that the poll showed that: The poll found that nearly four in five (78%) Internet users felt that the Internet had brought them greater freedom, that most Internet users (53%) felt that "the internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere", and almost four in five Internet users and non-users around

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4316-508: The few tools he has at his disposal such as dental floss and shampoo bottles, and he is also allowed to use a small pair of scissors with rounded edges. A few of Alwi's pieces are on display at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. There are also other artworks on display at the College that were created by other inmates. The artwork that is being displayed might be the only way for some of

4399-501: The first country to abolish censorship by law . Censorship has been criticized throughout history for being unfair and hindering progress. In a 1997 essay on Internet censorship, social commentator Michael Landier explains that censorship is counterproductive as it prevents the censored topic from being discussed. Landier expands his argument by claiming that those who impose censorship must consider what they censor to be true, as individuals believing themselves to be correct would welcome

4482-440: The gods of the state"), and as a punishment sentenced to death, caused by the drinking of a mixture containing hemlock. Socrates' student, Plato , is said to have advocated censorship in his essay on The Republic , which opposed the existence of democracy. In contrast to Plato, Greek playwright Euripides (480–406 BC) defended the true liberty of freeborn men, including the right to speak freely. In 1766, Sweden became

4565-462: The identification of authors. Technologically savvy users can often find ways to access blocked content . Nevertheless, blocking remains an effective means of limiting access to sensitive information for most users when censors, such as those in China , are able to devote significant resources to building and maintaining a comprehensive censorship system. Views about the feasibility and effectiveness of Internet censorship have evolved in parallel with

4648-440: The imminent publication of the book, though there was no evidence of publication at this time. On 16 August Penguin presented 15 copies to D.I. Monahan; legal proceedings were instituted, and a summons was issued on 25 August at Bow Street Magistrates' Court . Prosecuting, Mervyn Griffith-Jones began by urging the jury to decide if the book was obscene under section 2 of the Act and if so whether its literary merit provided for

4731-621: The inmates to communicate with the outside. Recently things have changed though. The military has come up with a new policy that will not allow the artwork at Guantanamo Bay Military Prison to leave the prison. The artwork created by Alwi and other prisoners is now government property and can be destroyed or disposed of in whatever way the government choose, making it no longer the artist's property. Around 300 artists in Cuba are fighting for their artistic freedom due to new censorship rules Cuba's government has in place for artists. In December 2018, following

4814-486: The interpretation of contemporary thought, opinion and socialization. One argument for censoring the type of information disseminated is based on the inappropriate quality of such material for the younger public. The use of the "inappropriate" distinction is in itself controversial, as it changed heavily. A Ballantine Books version of the book Fahrenheit 451 which is the version used by most school classes contained approximately 75 separate edits, omissions, and changes from

4897-469: The introduction of new rules that would ban music performances and artwork not authorized by the state, performance artist Tania Bruguera was detained upon arriving to Havana and released after four days. An example of extreme state censorship was the Nazis' requirements of using art as propaganda. Art was only allowed to be used as a political instrument to control people and failure to act in accordance with

4980-410: The jury, the short answer to that view of the matter is this, which I think I put to one witness: what is there in the book to suggest that if the sexual intercourse between lady Chatterley and Mellors had not eventually turned out to be successful she would not have gone on and on and on elsewhere until she did find it?" In a point not raised in cross-examination Griffith-Jones asked the jury to consider

5063-401: The jury: "All you can do is to judge it as a whole in the existing climate of literature and with your own knowledge of human life." In his closing remarks Griffith-Jones examined the definition of obscenity and the change of its wording in law: "It is true that the old definition is now altered, and the words 'those whose minds are open to such influences', are changed to 'those who may in all

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5146-401: The matter charged, and a jury should not be directed that, beyond this, they must find an intent to corrupt public morals. ' " Gardiner countered that while he accepted the prosecution's argument in R v Montalk that intent to corrupt public morals is inferred from the act of publication, that presumption is itself a matter of fact and rebuttable. The judge gave his opinion that the defence

5229-507: The moment at which the confused mesh of British attitudes to class, to literature, to the intellectual life, and to censorship, publicly clashed as rarely before – to the confusion of more conservative attitudes. On the far side of that watershed and largely as a consequence, the favoured story continues, we had the Permissive Society. All of which is excessive and over-simple, but has some truth." Philip Larkin referred to

5312-542: The national or sub-national level, and can carry legal penalties for their infraction. Books may also be challenged at a local, community level. As a result, books can be removed from schools or libraries, although these bans do not typically extend outside of that area. Aside from the usual justifications of pornography and obscenity , some films are censored due to changing racial attitudes or political correctness in order to avoid ethnic stereotyping and/or ethnic offense despite its historical or artistic value. One example

5395-424: The opportunity to disprove those with opposing views. Censorship is often used to impose moral values on society, as in the censorship of material considered obscene. English novelist E. M. Forster was a staunch opponent of censoring material on the grounds that it was obscene or immoral, raising the issue of moral subjectivity and the constant changing of moral values. When the 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover

5478-502: The original Bradbury manuscript. In February 2006, a National Geographic cover was censored by the Nashravaran Journalistic Institute . The offending cover was about the subject of love and a picture of an embracing couple was hidden beneath a white sticker. Economic induced censorship is a type of censorship enacted by economic markets to favor, and disregard, types of information. Economic induced censorship

5561-406: The passage of the novel on p. 258 which suggested heterosexual anal sex, then a criminal act in England and Wales, which (though Griffith-Jones didn't belabour the point), had it been examined more closely, might have been damning to the defence case that the book was not obscene. After three hours of deliberation the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. Lord Teviot moved for

5644-412: The prosecution has to establish something in a criminal case the burden which rests on them is to satisfy a jury beyond a reasonable doubt; where the defence have to discharge some burden of proof it is a lesser burden, it is the burden of satisfying a jury on a mere balance of probabilities." And in referring to the judge's ruling on the admissibility of other books for comparison Gardiner simply entreated

5727-420: The prosecution, Griffith-Jones pursued Hoggart's previous description of the book as "highly virtuous if not puritanical". "I thought I had lived my life under a misapprehension as to the meaning of the word 'puritanical'. Will you please help me?" "Yes, many people do live their lives under a misapprehension of the meaning of the word 'puritanical'. This is the way in which language decays. In England today and for

5810-426: The public mind is seen as one of the central themes of Stalinism and totalitarianism . Censorship is occasionally carried out to aid authorities or to protect an individual, as with some kidnappings when attention and media coverage of the victim can sometimes be seen as unhelpful. Censorship by religion is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on

5893-503: The publication of D. H. Lawrence 's 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover . The trial took place over six days, in No 1 court of the Old Bailey , between 20 October and 2 November 1960 with Mervyn Griffith-Jones prosecuting, Gerald Gardiner counsel for the defence and Laurence Byrne presiding. The trial was a test case of the defence of public good provision under section 4 of the Act which

5976-401: The question was submitted by Gardiner whether reference to other books was permissible as evidence with respect to the author's intention and particularly the production of other books to show by way of comparison what the climate of literature was and how well the authorial intention was carried out; further, that the 1959 Act had changed the law regarding judging the work as a whole and whether

6059-498: The recommendation of the Herbert Committee in response to what was seen as the failure of the existing common law offence of obscene libel . The Bill's sponsor Roy Jenkins cited five prosecutions in 1954 which highlighted the uncertainty of the law on obscenity and that the basis of the existing law, R v Hicklin , had the effect of a stringent literary censorship. Consequently, the resultant Act made specific provision for

6142-509: The testimony of the defence witnesses, after which he went on to examine the tactics of the prosecution: "In answer to what these witnesses have said, hardly any question has been put to them by the prosecution about the book as a whole. The technique has been just as it used to be before the Act: to read out particular passages and say "Now do you call that moral?", or "Do you think that is a good bit of writing?" The one thing which this Act has made plain

6225-626: The widespread knowledge or belief that a person, their computer, or their use of the Internet is under surveillance can have a " chilling effect " and lead to self-censorship. R v Penguin Books Ltd R v Penguin Books Ltd (also known as The Lady Chatterley Trial ), was the public prosecution in the United Kingdom of Penguin Books under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for

6308-464: The words lost that shock. They were being progressively purified as they were used. We have no word in English for this act which is not either a long abstraction or an evasive euphemism, and we are constantly running away from it, or dissolving into dots, at a passage like that. He wanted to say, 'This is what one does. In a simple, ordinary way, one fucks,' with no sniggering or dirt." Cross-examining for

6391-408: The world felt that access to the Internet was a fundamental right (50% strongly agreed, 29% somewhat agreed, 9% somewhat disagreed, 6% strongly disagreed, and 6% gave no opinion). The rising use of social media in many nations has led to the emergence of citizens organizing protests through social media, sometimes called " Twitter Revolutions ". The most notable of these social media-led protests were

6474-533: The world, some experts believe that this could result in more censorship than before. Since the early 1980s, advocates of video games have emphasized their use as an expressive medium , arguing for their protection under the laws governing freedom of speech and also as an educational tool. Detractors argue that video games are harmful and therefore should be subject to legislative oversight and restrictions . Many video games have certain elements removed or edited due to regional rating standards . For example, in

6557-542: Was put on trial in 1960 , Forster wrote: Lady Chatterley's Lover is a literary work of importance...I do not think that it could be held obscene, but am in a difficulty here, for the reason that I have never been able to follow the legal definition of obscenity. The law tells me that obscenity may deprave and corrupt, but as far as I know, it offers no definition of depravity or corruption. Proponents have sought to justify it using different rationales for various types of information censored: In wartime, explicit censorship

6640-514: Was defined as a work "in the interests of science, literature, art or learning, or of other objects of general concern". The jury found for the defendant in a result that ushered in the liberalisation of publishing, and which some saw as the beginning of the permissive society in Britain. The Obscene Publications Bill was first put before the UK Parliament in 1955 as a private member's bill on

6723-447: Was not justified in calling evidence to prove that there was no intent to deprave and corrupt, that defence could not produce other books with respect to evidence of the present book's obscenity rather than literary merit and that expert testimony could not be called as to the public good of the work which was a matter for the jury. In a lengthy speech, which has been praised for its " forensic advocacy", Gardiner began by recapitulating

6806-499: Was the cause of some amusement in the court, and as a signal of how out of touch the establishment were with everyday life, has echoed in popular culture since. He also conceded that Lawrence was a writer of stature and that the book may have had some literary value but the obscenity of its language, its recommendation of what appears to be adulterous promiscuity and that the plot is mere padding for descriptions of sexual intercourse outweighed any such defence. Gerald Gardiner outlined

6889-520: Was used as a common justification to exercise official wartime censorship and encourage individual restraint when sharing potentially sensitive information. An example of " sanitization " policies comes from the USSR under Joseph Stalin , where publicly used photographs were often altered to remove people whom Stalin had condemned to execution. Though past photographs may have been remembered or kept, this deliberate and systematic alteration to all of history in

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