~ JULY’S DISCUSSION TOPIC ~

CENSORSHIP

What is your stance on the act of censoring?
Is the public entitled to absolute freedom of speech and expression?
Why is there a need for censorship?
If there is a need, who should be responsible for it?

Censorship is a dirty word to me. I consider it a form of infringement upon basic human rights – the right to freedom of expression. Censorship is a tool used to reinforce power, dictate values and ideas and to keep the general population uneducated or worse, ignorant. It is also completely ineffective because human nature is always drawn to the forbidden. By censoring or banning a particular book or movie, it will just compel the public to gain access to the prohibited material by other means.

Censorship also draws clear and absolute lines on what is right and wrong with no compromises and no ground in between. It has resulted in some muddling outcomes as to what is deemed appropriate and inappropriate by certain authors, movie directors and producers. I was baffled to discover that Chinua Achebe is in the list of banned authors. If that is so, then why was Things Fall Apart included in the nationwide English Literature syllabus some years back?

I truly believe that censorship is a tool to subdue and limit freedom of thought and expression because the powers that be do not want their citizens educated and opinionated. Why would they when they would prefer to dictate what is right and wrong to the citizens? An ignorant society is better than a dissentient one.

Geraldine Phillips

Censorship. When we hear this word, abruptly we will imagine that the countries which practice censorship are uncivilized. However, if we really understand the use of censorship, then we will understand the importance of it in order for countries to be harmonious.

Malaysia is known as a country which does practise censorship in all mass media: television, newspaper, and etc. I think it is not wrong to censor certain materials but the extent to which the government practises it is an issue. If the government wants to delete certain scenes from a movie which comes from abroad due to the nuances of culture, it is not wrong, especially movies and dramas from France. If the government does not cut away these parts, the nude scenes may incur anger and wrath among the citizens.

The problem here is to what extent the government should censor our mass media. Today, whenever we watch the news either though national channels or private channels we should realise that we have been fooled with the “facts” due to censorship. The restriction imposed by the government is strictly just to maintain their good name, and as a result all the good and great news is always related to government. It means that we can’t really see what is happening in our own country. Is it getting better from the previous government or it is getting worse or are the opposition allies better? At the end of the day it is as if we were living in our own prison!

Ahmad Afandi

The IB5 who has left will be coming back again for one last event in the school: The Graduation Day. As the coordinator of the event I wanted a graduation that will fit them; a fun and spontaneous event. Having the help from one of the wackiest students in IB (Aimran) we agreed to create a memento that will best remind them of the IB programme, which is a VCD (that has now turned into a DVD due to the length) with their personal messages. Since we are interviewing, we might as well put it as a short movie during the graduation to show what their friends are saying to them. To add more flavours to it, we decide to ask them some “interesting” questions. So what started out as a short message became an elaborate interview that lasted about 7-12 minutes for each of the students. After the “wardrobe” interview we happily started working on the clips. This is when we found out that we had to do a lot of censoring. We needed to edit all the “inappropriate” responses which should not appear on the screen during the graduation (imagine all the teachers and parents!). I believe that censoring a video is partly fun because you get to see what each of the individuals really has to say but at the same time, no one else can share the fun (except the censors) because you have to censor off “inappropriateness” in the videos. So what is inappropriate? Anything that directly, indirectly suggests negativity (in the local culture) would be considered inappropriate. Well, I can’t really give solid examples as this will void all the censorship that we have endured! The students had a chance to express their thoughts, but were filtered by us (the self-appointed censors) who feel a need to protect privacy, and some….. to protect their dignity, so in this case it is necessary. So how are we judging the sensitivity of the speech? Well, since the audiences are the friends, family and teachers of the students, we have to listen to other hidden meanings as well, which makes the censoring job exhausting. First you take out some parts of the interview, and then when you listen again, it has to be sound, logical and most important of all, still carries the same message. In conclusion, censorship is tiring and should not be encouraged. Just show what is videoed and don’t video what’s not shown. J

Ellie Chuah

Censorship, my pet peeve.

I usually make myself see the black and white of everything, but not so when it comes to censorship. To me, there should be NONE.

The reason for my saying no to censorship has to do with the infringement of one of the basic rights of being human: freedom of expression. Everyone, black or white, Muslim or Jew, should be permitted to say and write what they want, and we, the readers, should be permitted to read what we want. To have a self-appointed governing body telling us what we should or should not read makes a mockery of our intelligence.

Censorship, of course, is a common practice in Malaysia (to be fair, it is in most countries). This means that the information the people get has already been filtered and is not the entire truth. Where is the harm in this? When the people do not know the entire truth, they can be presented with any version of the truth and they will believe it. This is the makings of an autocracy. It therefore doesn’t surprise anyone that there is no independent press in Malaysia.

On a less severe note, censorship is also rampant in the Arts in Malaysia. Movies are often censored because they are thought to be too sexual, violent or politically challenging (the whole Schindler’s List mess in the 90s was just plain embarrassing). Popular artists are restricted because they are considered too flamboyant. These are all examples of intolerance which stunt the growth of the mind. In order for the soul (assuming we have one) to grow, it needs to be exposed to the whole spectrum of humanity. When the soul fails to grow, you get warped individuals like the Indonesian Communications Minister who claims that the Internet violates public morality and vows to “save the young”.

What about those with the intention to offend or provoke? Should they be allowed to speak, too? Yes, absolutely. All the haters and anarchists should also have their say. This is because if they are not free to vent their hatred, it will be released in a more destructive manner (terrorism comes to mind). Should there be legal repercussions for these folks? Yes. This is NOT censorship. What it means is you are free to say whatever you want, but you have to be man enough to face the consequences of your words.

Edward Ong