Introduction: The New Face of Censorship by Joel Simon.
From the post:
In the days when news was printed on paper, censorship was a crude practice involving government officials with black pens, the seizure of printing presses and raids on newsrooms. The complexity and centralization of broadcasting also made radio and television vulnerable to censorship even when the governments didn’t exercise direct control of the airwaves. After all, frequencies can be withheld; equipment can be confiscated; media owners can be pressured.
New information technologies–the global, interconnected internet; ubiquitous social media platforms; smart phones with cameras–were supposed to make censorship obsolete. Instead, they have just made it more complicated.
Does anyone still believe the utopian mantras that information wants to be free and the internet is impossible to censor or control?
The fact is that while we are awash in information, there are tremendous gaps in our knowledge of the world. The gaps are growing as violent attacks against the media spike, as governments develop new systems of information control, and as the technology that allows information to circulate is co-opted and used to stifle free expression.
…
The work of Joel Simon and the Committee to Protect Journalists is invaluable. The challenges, dangers and hazards for journalists around the world are constant and unrelenting.
I have no doubt about Simon’s account of suppression of journalists. His essay is a must read for everyone who opposes censorship, at least in its obvious forms.
A more subtle form of censorship is practiced in the United States, self-censorship.
How many stories on this theme have you read in the last couple of weeks? U.S. spy agency abandons controversial surveillance technique
Now, how many of those same stories mentioned that the NSA has a long and storied history of lying to the American public, presidents and congress?
By my count, which wasn’t exhaustive, the total is 0.
Instead of challenging this absurd account, Reuters reports the NSA reports as though it were true and fails to remind the public it is relying on a habitual liar.
Show of hands, how many readers think the Reuters staff forgot that the NSA is a hotbed of liars and cheats?
There is little cause for government censorship of US media outlets. They censor themselves before the government can even ask.
Support the Committee to Protect Journalists and perhaps their support of journalists facing real censorship will shame US media into growing a spine.