Tag Archives: censorship

Dorothea Lange's pictures from the 1930s helped to create documentary photography. "Migrant Mother," her 1936 portrait of a 32-year-old stoop-laborer, which she shot on assignment for the federal Resettlement Administration, has become iconic, part of our collective memory of the Great Depression. The woman sits in a doorway with three of her seven children, staring into the distance, her expression an impossible combination of despair, dignity, and hallowed beauty. Over the decades and throughout the world, in countless exhibitions and publications, scores of people have seen this image and others by this major American artist. However, less than five years after she took "Migrant Mother," Lange shot another 1,000 photographs, also on commission from the US government, that are far less familiar. In fact, they were considered so revealing of this country's bias, brutality, and shame that they were immediately censored and confiscated by the same government agencies that had commissioned them. They were of Japanese internment camps in California during World War II.

Excerpt from Persons Of Japanese Ancestry by Marilyn Richardson, Women's Review of Books, Vol 24, Issue 3 (May/June 2007),  a review of Impounded: Dorothea Lange and Censored Images of Japanese Internment Edited by Dorothea Lange and Gary Y. Okihiro.

Continue Reading →

Tonight (Friday August 10, 2007), the BBC show Newsnight will cover this topic:

GAGGING ORDER?
The Ministry of Defence has updated its guidelines which some say effectively "gags" soldiers and others in the armed forces. Tonight we'll be asking if this is a reasonable restriction or not. The latest guidelines specifically say soldiers cannot blog, email or post photographs or videos which relate to defence matters without specific permission. We know a lot about the problems they've faced in Iraq and Afghanistan through the anonymous postings of British and US soldiers - and I imagine the MOD doesn't like it. The clarification follows the row over the selling of interviews by two of the Royal Navy personnel held captive in Iran, and the report into media communications that followed. But with two more British soldiers killed yesterday and casualties mounting - will there be online mutiny in the ranks?..

See also the U.S. version of the same issue: Pentagon promotes itself on YouTube, but prohibits troops from using it and New limits on blogging by U.S. soldiers.

Continue Reading →

According to National Journal's Technology Daily, "[Michigan] State Senate Republican leaders moved to restrict access to Blogging for Michigan, a liberal blog where their Democratic colleagues recently began contributing in a series of guest posts on a variety of issues. Access to the blog was restored after Democrats accused their rivals of limiting free speech."

According to the Michigan State University State News, "Other political Web sites, like the conservative-leaning blog, www.rightmichigan.com, and the liberal site, www.michiganliberal.com, weren't blocked. Matt Miner, Bishop's chief of staff, told MIRS, a Lansing political newsletter, www.michiganliberal.com doesn't 'say bad things about us,' according to The Associated Press."

This is a good example of the complexities of government information in the digital age. When governments start seeing the internet as a way of communicating with constituents and e-government becomes the the norm, are some avenues of communication legitimate and some not? Should anyone in government have the authority to cut off access to anything for any reason -- or is such control, by definition, censorship?

• Blog-Filtering Dispute Erupts In Michigan [subscription required] by Michael Martinez, National Journal's Technology Daily. State Roundup (August 9, 2007)
• Blogging Is Constituent Work by Christine, Blogging for Michigan, Wed Aug 08, 2007 at 19:52:36 PM EDT
• Senate loses liberal blog access, by Chris Christoff, Detroit Free Press August 7, 2007
• Blocking blog site shows political bias, Michigan State University State News

Continue Reading →