Censorship in the United States
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The US Bill of Rights guarantees the rights of citizens to speak and publish freely. Nevertheless, certain forms of speech, such obscenity and libel, are restricted.
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[edit] Broadcast media censorship
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates "indecent" free-to-air broadcasting. It can issue fines if, for example, the broadcaster employs certain swear words. Radio personality Howard Stern has been a frequent target of fines. This led to his leaving broadcast radio and signing on with Sirius Satellite Radio in 2004. The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy increased the political pressure on the FCC to vigorously police the airwaves. In addition, Congress increased the maximum fine the FCC may levy from US $268,500 to US $375,000 per incident.
Critics of Television Broadcast Media throughout the latter half of the 20th century on into the 21st have expressed their concerns regarding the filtration of content being offered to citizens of the United States through the modern-day journalism platform. They argue that media conglomerates within the U.S. are responsible for painting a very limited/pointed picture of U.S. government involvement throughout the world, and further argue that this causes an uninformed political support by U.S. citizens.
[edit] War reporting and national security
The Office of Censorship, an emergency wartime agency, heavily censored reporting during World War II. On December 19, 1941 Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8985, which established the Office of Censorship and conferred on its director the power to censor international communications in "his absolute discretion." Byron Price was selected as the Director of Censorship. However, the censorship was not limited to reporting. "Every letter that crossed international or U.S. territorial borders from December 1941 to August 1945 was subject to being opened and scoured for details."[1] Since that time war censorship had been relatively light until the advent of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. In January of 1991, a few weeks before the U.S.-led UN invasion of Iraq during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, Secretary of the Defense, Dick Cheney, had the Pentagon issue a ban on media coverage of returning war casualties.[citation needed]
Several past controversies were the failed attempt to prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War and the daily televising of the Iran Hostage Crisis by the national broadcast media, that is believed to have led to the re-election loss of Jimmy Carter in 1980.
In 1979, the magazine The Progressive was sued by the U.S. government (United States v. The Progressive, Inc.) and temporarily blocked from publishing an article that purported to reveal the "secret" of the hydrogen bomb. The article was eventually published.
Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951 and the Atomic Energy Act of 1956, patents may be withheld and kept secret on grounds of national security.
On September 11, 2005 the American Civil Liberty Union reports:
- 30,000 National Security Letters Issued Annually Demanding Information about Americans: Patriot Act Removed Need for FBI to Connect Records to Suspected Terrorists
- [...] According to the Washington Post, universities and casinos have received these letters and been forced to comply with the demands to turn over private student and customer information. Anyone who receives an NSL is gagged - forever - from telling anyone that the FBI demanded records, even if their identity has already been made public.
- In New York and Connecticut, the ACLU has challenged the NSL provision that was dramatically expanded by Section 505 of the Patriot Act. The legislation amended the existing NSL power by permitting the FBI to demand records of people who are not connected to terrorism and who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. [...]
In February 2004 a study from FAIR, the national media watchdog group, found that 76 percent of all 319 news sources appearing in stories about Iraq on the nightly network newscasts (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News) in the month of October 2003 were current or former government or military officials.
On February 17, 2006 former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated, that "in this war, some of the most critical battles may not be fought in the mountains of Afghanistan or the streets of Iraq, but in the newsrooms in places like New York and London and Cairo and elsewhere. [...] While the enemy is increasingly skillful at manipulating the media and using the tools of communications to their advantage, it should be noted that we have an advantage as well, and that is, quite simply, that the truth is on our side, and ultimately, in my view, truth wins out. I believe with every bone in my body that free people, exposed to sufficient information, will, over time, find their way to right decisions."
[edit] Bomb-making
In 1997, Congress voted unanimously to add an amendment to a Department of Defense spending bill forbidding the distribution of instructions that teach "the making or use of an explosive, a destructive device, or a weapon of mass destruction" if those instructions are intended to assist in the actual building and use of such a device. This was known as Feinstein Amendment SP 419.
[edit] Pornography
US courts have ruled that the First Amendment protects "indecent" pornography from regulation, but not "obscene" pornography. Enforcement of federal obscenity laws has increased under the Bush administration. People convicted of distributing obscene pornography face long prison terms and asset forfeiture.
In 1996, Congress passed Communications Decency Act, with the aim of restricting Internet pornography. Court rulings have struck down much of the law, however.
A widely publicized case of prosecuting obsenity occurred in 1990, when the Cincinnati Arts Center agreed to hold an art show featuring the work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. His work included several artistic nude photographs of males, and was deemed offensive by some people for this reason. This resulted in the prosecution of the center and its director, who were later acquitted.
In the early 1990s, Mike Diana became the first American artist to be convicted for obscenity for drawing cartoons that were judged legally obscene in Florida.
[edit] Cryptography software
The export of cryptography software is regulated as a munition under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, although in recent years the regulations have relaxed, due in part to industry lobbying.
Daniel J. Bernstein challenged the regulations (see Bernstein v. United States) on First Amendment grounds and won his case, but some regulations remain. See also export of cryptography.
[edit] Libel
In the Internet era, libel laws are increasingly being used against individuals expressing their views in public forums. Although it is difficult to win a libel case in the U.S., it can still be an effective means of intimidation and deterrence, since defending oneself against a lawsuit is expensive and time consuming. See also SLAPP.
[edit] References
- ^ Fiset, Louis. Return to Sender: U.S. Censorship of Enemy Alien Mail in World War II, Prologue Magazine Spring 2001, Vol. 33, No. 1. Retrieved from U.S. Government National Archives.
[edit] Censorship in the past
- Alien and Sedition Acts
- Production Code
- Comics Code Authority
- Areopagitica: A speech of Mr John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England
[edit] See also
- Prior restraint
- Civil liberties of the United States
- Censorship in Canada
- Freedom of speech in the United States
- First Amendment to the United States Constitution
- Freedom of the press
- Freedom of speech
- List of prominent cases argued by Floyd Abrams
- United States obscenity law
- Corporate media
[edit] Rating systems and industry self-regulation
- MPAA film rating system
- Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)
- Comics Code Authority
- TV Parental Guidelines
- Parental Advisory (music)
[edit] Related techniques of suppression
[edit] Free speech advocates
- American Civil Liberties Union
- Center for Democracy and Technology
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- International Freedom of Expression Exchange
- American Library Association
