PowerPointPrsentation

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Methods of censorship in Mussolinis Italy,
Hitlers Germany, the USSR and Francos Spain
Hanna Fischer Silke Lenz 02.11.04

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Similarities and Differences between Mussolinis
Italy and Francos Spain
Silke Lenz
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Mussolinis Italy

• Mussolini came into power in 1922, then he
  became the prime minister of Italy
• in a situation, when Italy was shattered into
  many different groups with many different
  interests in a very unstable kingdom
• Mussolini was the leader of the Fascist
  Blackshirt Party
• after his March in Rome in 1922, he was invited
  to form a new government by king Vittrio Emanuele
  III.

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• Mussolini soon consolidated his power by gaining
  the upper hand on both king and pope
• he had been successful in improving the economy
  and he brought stability into the country which
  was needed most
• he made the trains run in time (by shooting
  someone, if not)

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• Mussolini first armed local fascist militia,
  later he formed an institutionalised militia that
  carried official state support
• he smashed trade unions and signed a concordate
  with the Vatican to fight against Bolshewism
• Mussolini asserted his personal authority over
  country and party to establish a personal
  dictatorship, he took over many ministries at the
  same time (7) as well as the primership, just to
  give someone else power or to create a rival

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Mussolini kept all power in his hand, he
centralized power, and in that he became kind of
an idole to Hitler and Franco
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Censorship in Italy

• - under Mussolini all communication media were
  under hard censorship
• newspaper, alswell as radiobroadcast, aswell as
  films
• - the schoolsystem was under censorship
• all were carefully underwised to manufactor the
  illusion that fascism was the doctrine of the
  20th centruary, replacing liberalism and democracy

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- the law codes were rewritten - all teachers in
school and university had to swear an oath to
defend the Fascist regime - newspaper editors
were all personally chosen by Mussolini himself,
and no one could practice journalism who did not
possess a certificate of approval from the
Facsist party - the aim was to place all Italians
in various professional organization or
corporations in order to make work and money
equal to avoid a new class struggle, all
corporations under governmental control  
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Francos Spain

• Franco came into power in 1939 after the civil
  war from 1936-1939
• Franco led the Nationalist
• with the help from the German Nazis and Adolf
  Hitler and Italians Mussolini, he won the war and
  in 1939 his government was accepted by the other
  European countries

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- what followed was a period of 36 years of
dictatorship under Generalissimo Franco, people
have been supressed, trade unions were forbidden,
communism was forbidden, - between 1939 and 1943
250.000 have been killed by the regime, the only
people,who profit from the regime were the big
landowner, the church, the entrepreneurs, the
militaries
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Franco tried to establish an autarkic
economy, Spain was isolated economically and
politically, which led to economical crisis,
inflation and poverty
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- in the 60th Franco tried to enter into
international negotiations, and with help of the
western european countries the economical and
social situation got better - in 1975 Franco died
and befor he named Juan Carlos de Bourbon to be
his succsessor, Spain turned into a
constitutional monarchy - under Juan Carlos
turned Spain into a parliamenaly monarchy, since
1978 Spain has a democratic constitution
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in 1973, when freedomhouse began its research,
Spain was a not free country with less political
rights and less civil liberties, in 1975 it
became partly free, since 1978 Spain is a free
country according to freedomhouse research
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The freedom of speech and censorship under
Generalissimo Franco   In the beginning there
was no free flow of information, no freedom of
expression, but a rigid system of censorship,
Franco tried to use the press to substain his
dictatorship, press of an instrument of
government propaganda
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The Press Law of 1938

• state authority on any kind of publication
• newspapers managers and editors were determined
  by the state
• journalists had to be registered
• daily inspections to make sure, that there were
  no harmful inholds to the state
• exactly orders how informtios had to be
  interpreted, with specific arguments and
  expressions

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• Generalissimo Franco established a journalist
  empire of his own

- in 1964 had been a research, which said, that
only 65 of the newspaper readers believed in
what was written, but only 71 out of one thousand
people read newspapers
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The Press Law of 1966

• censorship and the orders wer relaxed
• there was no freedom of the press, but freedom
  of expressions
• less direct control on newspapers and publishing
  houses by the state
• a new quality of reporting on political news

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• But still
• more than three formal sanctions concerning the
  publications of an editor could make him/her
  loose hies/her job
• the state retained the right to punish
  publishers

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• ? so this reform was not comparable with standard
  of the freedom of the press in all many other
  western european countries, but it was seen as a
  partial liberalization
• there was not freedom of the press, but one
  right allowed the freedom of expression, which
  made it possible to write about formerly taboo
  subjekts like strikes, student protests, etc.

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Newspapers began to perform a moderately
critical role, and magazines were converted in
many instances into outlet for political opinions
and ideologies distinct from and sometimes
contrary to those of the regime. (Page 264)
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Differences between newspaper/ radio/ TV

• the state newspapers were alsways under heavy
  censorship
• in 1966 the private newspapers were under less
  censorship, but still
• private radio was under heavy censorship
• could could only be privided by the state
  radiobroadcast Radio International Espana

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• In the beginning of the 60th television became a
  bigger role in society
• private commercial television was under heavy
  censorship
• in the late 60th and 70th it became most peoples
  only news source
• Franco used that as his most important
  instrument of propaganda

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? what happened by not trusting the media, not
the newspaper, not radio and not Tv in presenting
free information and free news, most of the
people thought every single media has the same
opinion towards things that happened, people
became a lack of interest in political things
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? things began to change, in the 60th, when Spain
got help from the western european countries
concerning economical help, and when Manuel Fraga
Iribarne relaxed the most repressive aspects of
censorship and the issuance of the orders with
the Press Law in 1966 (Ley Fraga)
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? newspaper played a very important role in the
democratization of Spain. Despite there was no
law that insured freedom of the press, freedom of
expression was ensured by law. So the newspaper
wrote about many things concerning the western
european countries, and so all other
communication media helped to teach democratical
norms and values to people. Soon people thought a
democracy is the only way. And the fact that with
help from democratic countries Spain grew
economically, people wanted a democracy.
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Differences between Mussolinis Spain and
Francos Italy

• both dictatorships used the press as an
  instrument for state propaganda
• both build up their own empire of press
• communication media were under heavy censorship
• but Franco allowed private publishing houses,
  newspapers, magazines, radio and tv

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Conclusion

• Media communication is most important instrument
  of propaganda in every authoritarian/totalitarian
  state
• political centralization in a authoritarian/total
  itarian state goes along with centralization of
  the press

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Comparison of all 4
Communist-totalitarian state Soviet Union

• Fascist states
• Italy
• Nazi-Germany
• Spain