Censorship - Resources

Photo: Jon Sullivan, PDphoto.org

Censorship

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm
  

The United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has similar safeguards, also in Article 19:

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
   http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm

• The Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution protects the right of "freedom of the press and “freedom of expression"
  http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/constitution/saconst02.html?rebookmark=1#16
  
  
• Judgements from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa
  http://www.bccsa.co.za/judgements.asp
  These judgements illustrate the kinds of offences committed by broadcasters and the BCCSA's reaction to them.
  
  
• The Film and Publication Board
  http://www.fpb.gov.za/
  The official web site of the Film and Publication Board includes, complaints, documents and legislation.
  
  
• The Control of Ideas
  http://www.anc.org.za/books/reich12.html
  Chapter 12 of Brian Bunting's book The Rise of the South African Reich gives some historical accounts of press censorship in South Africa
  
  
• Satire in South Africa
  http://www.evita.co.za/evitaB/base.html
  A look at the use of satire as a response to South African censorship laws during pre-independence South Africa.

• Vigilant.TV: The Top 25 Acts of Media Censorship, 2002-2003
  http://vigilant.tv/article/3252
  Although opinionated, this site gives lots of actual examples of how the media has been censored throughout the world.
  
  
• National Coalition Against Censorship
  http://www.ncac.org/
  This is a perspective from the USA. Note that the site is against censorship and therefore presents a one-sided view.
  
  
• Pacific Media Watch
  http://www.pmw.c2o.org/
  Updates on incidents involving media and censorship in the Pacific countries.
  
  
• An Anatomy of Censorship: Media Censorship as Misguided Fear
  http://www.sikhspectrum.com/022005/behzti_s.htm
  The article is prompted by a play which is deemed to be offensive to Sikhs, but touches on the concept of censorship generally, with reference to Harry Potter, amongst others.
  
  
• International Positions on Internet Censorship
  http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Internet_Censorship_-_International_Positions
  Positions of USA, Singapore and Republic of China are briefly stated.
  

Newsworthy

• What is News?
  http://cerritos.collegepublisher.com/news/2002/05/15/101Newswrtng/L.What.Is.News-357730.shtml
  This brief article highlights some basic features of newsworthiness.
  
  

Newsletters

• The Phoenix Newsletter
  http://www.schools.ash.org.au/daptohigh/2004%20March.pdf
  An example of a 4-page newsletter in two-column format, with pictures, graphics, and various kinds of articles.
  
  
• HS Newsletter
  http://www.ofs.edu.sg/newsletters/0403-HS.pdf
  A 4-page colourful newsletter from the Overseas Family School in Singapore.
  
  
• HS District 211 Newsletter
  http://www.d211.org/PDF%20Lib/SupNewsletters/supnews4-04.pdf
  A newsletter from the Superintendent of a high school.
  
  
• Community Newsletter 2003
  http://www.nps.gov/seki/fire/fireinfo/newsletters/2003prenews.pdf
  An example of a 3-column newsletter from the US Department of the Interior of the National Park Service.
  
  
• Menasha High School Newsletter
  http://www.mjsd.k12.wi.us/mhs/documents/pdf/newsletters/MHSNewsletterApril04.pdf
  A 3-page newsletter of a typical high school in the USA.

South African Education Portal
http://www.thutong.org.za
Thutong, the South African Education Portal has a growing number of resources for curriculum support.