Censorship

Censorship


Do you agree with the authorities prohibiting the publication of music, books, films or pictures? In many countries cases have occurred in where a lot of the productions of famous and infamous writers, photographers, directors, and singers have been banned. Many have been the reactions of the society, some in favor of censorship and against it. There are three censored cases that have interested me. They are about a controversial sculpture, a book and other about a film.


Nowadays, the laws have strengthened theirs rules and as consequence have become strict when it comes to making decisions about censoring. One case of censorship took place in Sacramento, California, in July of 2000. Parents, who were attending the event of Advanced Training Institute International, got offended by the naked Statue of Poseidon. This monument, which was a gift to the city from the government in Greece in 1972, was being shown in a public park between the Sacrament Convention center and a community theater. Parents complained about the situation to the City Officials. The decision that the City Officials remitted was to give the permission to the parents to clothe the statue during the three-day conference. The justification that one of the leaders of the convention, Steven Hammond, gave to resolve this problem was that the home-schooled students help the community economically and for that reason it wouldn’t be a wise choice to be against them. However, not all Sacramento residents were sided with the officials, and during the event, the Poseidon’s clothes were continuously taken off by people. In my opinion Poseidon’s statue shouldn’t have been clothed, despite that it was just for a few days, because I think that nowadays the people have open minds and can handle this situation and also because it seem to me absurd to have to put some clothes on a statue just to please a few privileged people.


Not only sculptors have been affected by case of censorship, but also books. A particular case occurred in Newman, California, on October 2008 at Orestimba High School. The book “Bless me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya, tells the story about a Latino boy reconciling his thoughts about American Indian religious traditions and Roman Catholicism. It was banned after a parent complained about it because it seemed to be anti-Catholic. The Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District held a meeting to discuss about the banned book. The decision was, without anyone having read the book, to ban it and return it. Some people like Tony Spears, president of the local chapter of American Civil Liberties Union, disagreed with the decision and explained that there is neither book nor newspaper article that couldn't be offensive to the people. In my opinion, publishing a book with an argument contrary to the way of thinking of people who read it and disagree with its idea, doesn't mean that those books have to be banned, reading those books with a different point of view would be beneficial for reinforcing students’ cultural knowledge, clearing theirs beliefs and teaching them to be critics of their own ideas.


In addition to the US' civil rights, Chinese’s right have been limited. This case took place in China, in 2007, where the movie “Lust, Caution”, directed by Ang Lee, was censored. That situation occurred because the movie, which tells about an intricate story of love, set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai the 1940s, had violent and sexually explicit scenes. The State Broadcasting Film and Television Administration made the decision to order the producer of the film to cut the 30 minutes of sexual and violent action, to prohibit the production of the movie on television and just produce it on theaters after cutting the censored part of it. The justification the Chinese Authorities gave to the producers was to prevent the young viewers from watching it because of its graphic sexual content. The director was pleased with the authorities because they permitted him to modify the film by himself instead of censor it at all. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television affirmed that the movie shouldn't be shown to children or adults. The Chinese censors permitted the production of “Lust Caution” in Chinese movie theaters at the end of 2007 after cutting over 30 minutes of sexual content. In my opinion the decision was made correctly because this kind of movie with explicit sex shouldn't be produced on television or theaters because could show a bad image of the country and also could be tentative for young viewers.


Censorship is a system, promoted by laws of each country, whose work is try to avoid or prohibit acts and productions out of rules that could offend or make society feel uncomfortable. In conclusion, censorship doesn’t have come influencing just to a reduced part of the world or a specific number of people with different way of thinking, but it has spread throughout the world conditioning people’ ideas and knowledge.