F

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F_at_ Censorship

• Kenneth Lamb
• Joseph Whiteside
• Sam Sacks
• Rebecca Brunner

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Introductiontalking points

• The age of the Internet has brought many issues
  relating to the collection and sharing of media
  and information to the forefront. In particular,
  to what extent can the government control the
  flow of information across an open medium such as
  the Internet?

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Introductiontalking points

• If the Internet is just another invention of
  communication in a long line of previous outlets
  (TV, radio, newspaper), many question then arise
  concerning whether or not censorship in any way
  can be applied to the World Wide Web.
• Or, is the Internet itself free from any form of
  regulation or censorship due to its
  self-sufficiency

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Introductiontalking points

• By looking at exactly what censorship is and
  exactly what the internet is and then applying
  how foreign nations govern the internet as
  opposed to how the United States approaches it,
  one can make the conclusion that any form of
  censorship is a violation against the freedoms of
  speech granted to every citizen in this country.

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Order of Operation

• What is Censorship?
• What is the Internet?
• History of Censorship.
• Court Cases that involve Censorship.
• Censorship abroad
• Recent Events in Censorship
• Final thoughts
• Our presentation will conducted via the lecture
  method with the aid of power point.
• Please hold all question until the end of the
  lecture.

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What is Censorship?

• The United Nations definition of censorship
  states, The control of information and ides
  circulated with in a society
• The origin of censorship takes us back to Italy
  in 1549, were it was seen mostly in Florence,
  Venice, and Rome

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What is Censorship?

• The Vatican of Italy at that time started with
  censorship because of a disagreement on
  particular books, by the author Ochinoi.
• The dilemma was whether or not the citizens of
  Rome should be allowed to be read those books due
  to a conflict between the church and right of
  freedom

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What is the Internet?

• At first glance the Internet appears to just be
  the next segment in a line of progressively more
  advanced media and information outlets first,
  the newspaper and magazines, then the radio,
  television and now the World Wide Web

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What is the Internet?

• However, there are many things that stand out
  about the Internet separating it from its
  predecessors.
• For example
• the Internet is a self-standing network of
  computers
• the Internet can operate without the hand of
  government, and thus without its guidance
• Restriction free

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History of Censorship

• History is littered with government intervention
  that has attempted to censor certain information,
  which the authorities did not agree with
• Such information on government intervention
  provides us insight into what the views of
  certain issues were in that time such as
  pornography, violence, and free speech.

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Magazine industry

• In 1943, the magazine industry hit the scene
  running, with the likes of Time Magazine and The
  Sportsman
• This industry provided a platform for plain-Jane
  individuals to express their opinions, interests,
  and viewpoints to a national audience
• Conservative leader saw this as a threat

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Magazine industry

• As a result, literature censorship would be
  attempted, in order to keep threatening material
  from reaching the hands of the everyday citizen.
• For example, in 1943 various crime magazine
  distributors are prosecuted for distributing
  various crime magazines under New Yorks
  obscenity law (Law).
• Source Letriclaw Library

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Magazine Industry

• At that time, the New York obscenity
  law,prohibited anything that was considered to be
  out of the norm or material that was morally
  wrong.

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Internet

• Has virtually no governance
• Gives people a perfect opportunity to post a web
  site containing information, which supports
  radical agendas
• An example of a radical website is the Klu Klux
  Klan (KKK) website, which discriminates against
  African Americans.

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Court Decisions

• The Bill of Rights has provided the fuel to the
  fire many of debates within the confines of the
  courtroom
• Hannegan V. Esquire
• United States v. Roth
• Reno v. ACLU

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Hannegan V. Esquire

• In Hannegan v Esquire (1946) the Supreme Court
  'ruled that the denial of second-class mailing
  privileges to Esquire magazine on the ground that
  the journals risqué features rendered it
  "morally improper" exceeded the Post-Master's
  statutory authority.
• Perfect victory?
• Source Fedworld.com

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United States v. Roth

• The decision that came from the case, centered on
  how obscene material affected a young mind
• Roth challenged the United States in that the
  harm that was previously thought to be placed on
  children when exposed to this material was dead
  as a general censorship test
• In addition, another argument brought forth
  contends that nude or obscene material would not
  be considered with in the realm of the First
  Amendment, thus not having to satisfy the clear
  and present danger test that applied when
  political speech was suppressed or, indeed, any
  other standards of justification, before
  criminalizing expression deemed to be obscene...
  
• Source Heins, Marjorie. Not in Front of the
  Children Indecency, Censorship And the
  innocence of youth

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United States v. Roth

• Therefore, resulting in the victory by Roth based
  on the fact there was no scientific evidence that
  could show that obscene and lewd thoughts would
  correlate to action on those though
• Consequently, resulting in the groundwork for
  the magazine industry of today, which allows the
  production of magazines such as Penthouse,
  Playboy, and Hustler.
• Source Heins, Marjorie. Not in Front of the
  Children Indecency, Censorship And the
  innocence of youth

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Reno v. ACLU

• Internet Censorship
• The case, Reno v. ACLU, was primarily based
  around the 1st amendment of the Bill of rights
  and how it relates to the Internet
• The proponent, American Civil Liberties Union,
  presented the argument that the Communications
  Decency Act (CDA), that was passed in 1996, was
  unconstitutional and places restrictions on free
  speech

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Reno v. ACLU

• The Reno team aimed their case at preventing
  indecent material from reaching the hands of
  minors using the Internet
• In the end the Supreme Court resided in the
  corner of the ACLU, stating, The CDA places
  unacceptably heavy burden on protected speech
• The court added, The interest in encouraging
  freedom of expression in a democratic society
  outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit or
  censorship
• Source ACLU NEWS PRESS RELEASE

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Foreign Censorship

• Censorship varies throughout the world.
• However, various regions often have the same
  methods of imposing censorship.
• The most extreme cases are China and the Middle
  East

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Chinese Censorship

• The Chinese government actually started attempts
  to regulate the Internet almost a year before the
  Internet became commercially available to
  civilians
• President Jiang Zemin has recently condemned the
  corrupting and pernicious information that
  currently being posted on the Internet and has
  since issued a request (order) for stronger
  legislation
• Since the Chinese government began to allow
  Internet access back in the mid 90s, at least 60
  sets of regulations have been issued

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Chinese Censorship

• As of January 2001, any person caught sending any
  secretive or reactionary materials would be
  charged with committing a capital offense.
• Topics that are damaging to the reputation of
  State are banned.
• The government required all Internet users to
  register with a police bureau within thirty days
  of signing up with an ISP

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Chinese Censorship

• The police bureaus set up local Internet
  investigation units
• The State Council issued regulations for the
  Safety and Protection of Computer Information
  Systems.
• What this regulation actually did was enable the
  Chinese government to track whoever is using the
  Internet
• Source HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS

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Saudi Arabia Censorship

• In 1999, Saudi Arabia began allowing it public to
  access the Internet through local providers
• Saudi Arabia had restricted the usage of the
  Internet to State affairs, academic, medical, and
  research institutions.
• Saudi citizens and residents have always been
  free to purchase computers and modems.
• However, they made accessing foreign websites so
  expensive it was simply not worthwhile to connect
  to the outside

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Saudi Arabia Censorship

• The standing committee
• Official explanations concerning the content
  filtering are mainly focused on
• materials, which are deemed offensive to the
  Muslim community, Saudi blocking evidently
  extends to political sites as well
• Source HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

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Central and Eastern Europe

• The countries in Europe mainly Central and
  Eastern Europe have extremely lax censorship
  regulation
• In Slovakia for instance, there are no controls
  whatsoever
• One reason for the lax censorship is
• few foreigners log on to this Eastern European
  sites because most people outside of these
  countries rarely speak the languages or read the
  Cyrillic alphabet
• Source Online Journalism Review

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Central and Eastern Europe

• Hungary, however, has begun to quietly censor
  their media outlets.
• Anyone wishing to start up a website must apply
  for a license and send up their web page for
  review by a committee of government officials.
• Source Online Journalism Review

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Recent Events in Censorship

• It is clear that in most countries over the past
  four or five years there has been an acceleration
  of efforts to either close down or inhibit the
  Internet .
• The September 11, 2001 attacks have allowed many
  to go forward with Internet limiting policies.
• There has been an acceleration of legal authority
  for additional snooping of all kinds,
  particularly involving the Internet, from
  increased email monitoring to the retention of
  Web logs and communications data
• Source Privacy International

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Recent Events in Censorship

• In addition, another problem that is arising is
  that governments have become more secretive about
  their own activities, reducing information that
  was previously available and refusing to abide to
  policies on freedom of information and freedom
  for it to be publicized.
• New methods of censorship include
• Applying laws and licenses, content filtering,
  tapping and surveillance, pricing and taxation
  policies

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Conclusion

• It can be clearly seen that the motivations of
  censorship lie in the distrust of freedom.
  Through the supreme courts decisions and the
  totalitarian governments in the east, the
  proponents of anti-censorship on the web tend to
  be the proponents of free speech and freedom of
  the press. Unlike the censorships stamped on TV
  and radio, the internet has been proven to be
  outside the jurisdiction of such actions and just
  how foreign nations are guilty of violations
  against free speech, so would the United States
  be in its attempt to censor the words and images
  of internet users.

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Conclusion

• . We firmly believe that it is up to each one of
  us, people of the free world, to ensure that
  censorship never becomes something that everyone
  comes to expect. In addition, we need to stand up
  to the brutal regimes across the world and
  influence them to change their ways so that
  everyone can have the opportunity to gain more
  knowledge, and every country can grow and
  together the human race as a whole can be
  smarter, therefore, being peaceful and free of
  oppression. Knowledge is Power.

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Final Thoughts

• On Censorship
• Questions? From anyone other than Professor
  Harwood?