US military censors contained information after the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving Americans with a limited understanding of the impact of radiation.
Censorship may not be the answer, but there needs to be acknowledgement of the challenges involved in the disruption of media that the internet is wreaking across the planet and in people’s homes.
40 years ago, Steven Spielberg’s shark attack classic wowed cinemagoers and ushered in the modern blockbuster. It also helped create a climate from which horror has yet to recover.
A year ago, a military coup toppled Thailand’s elected government. The junta promised elections once a new constitution is adopted, but its authoritarian rule betrays a hostility to real democracy.
The Merchant of Venice is a play that most thoroughly reveals the prevalent anti-Semitism of Shakespeare’s time. So should it be cut when performed today?
The imminent release of Fifty Shades of Grey has already provoked widespread protest, although the protesters have not actually seen it. The Guardian recently proclaimed: “This is not a porn film.” But…
The Russian film world has been in some turmoil this week. First there was news that the government was to decree that films “defiling the national culture, posing a threat to national unity and undermining…
Jay Gertzman, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
In 1957, publisher Samuel Roth spent his 63rd birthday in federal prison. His appeal denied by the United States Supreme Court, he would end up serving every day of his five year sentence. The crime? He…
India’s government has displeased many internet users by blocking access to some major websites at the start of the new year. A total of 32 sites were blocked, although sanctions have been lifted from…
A legislative provision that has just come into force bans certain acts in online pornography produced in the UK, with the effect of bringing video-on-demand services into line with the British Board of…
ITV has recently announced that it will not commission a second series of the controversial comedy series Dapper Laughs. The decision comes after a petition to have the programme removed from the air gathered…
Norwegian writer Mette Newth once wrote that: “censorship has followed the free expressions of men and women like a shadow throughout history.” As we develop new means to gather and create information…
ISIS is winning the propaganda war, it’s been said, and top brass from the European Commission, EU member state governments, and representatives of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have met to discuss…
FireChat, the mobile phone app that allows users to communicate directly with each other through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi instead of through the existing telecoms network, has demonstrated its usefulness in…
The events in Hong Kong have seen technology play a huge role in organising political protest, as much as in the days of the Arab Spring of 2011. But governments have become wise to the potential influence…
Henry Irving, School of Advanced Study, University of London
At approximately 1.30 am in the night of September 11 1939 two police officers walked into the offices of the Daily Mail with instructions to seize all of its early editions. This action was repeated at…
The discount supermarket chain Aldi has come under fire in recent days for removing Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (1982) from its shelves following a complaint from a customer on its Facebook page. The…
When a Google search can summon any image you like online, it seems anachronistic to hear of a print publication supposedly encountering distribution problems on the basis of its content. Yet that’s just…