Understanding Censorship
Censorship, Ban, State and Society Many people agree that some things need to be censored While others are outraged at censorship Rimjhim Sharma Jaipur. Censorship is the act or practice of suppressing the speech or public communication which is considered objectionable, harmful and sensitive, by a government, media outlet or other controlling bodies. This public content is censored for many reasons that the active bodies believe are immoral. Some reasons include: controlling obscenities, pornography, hate speeches, protecting young children, to promote or restrict political or religious views or even to protect the national security of a country. Censorship is all about perspective. Whether you are the over the top strict parent or the care free, young kid who wants to know everyone. Censorship will always be a heated debate, both sides have their pros and cons. Religious conflicts
often times can be avoided by the censorship of certain material that people deem insulting or offensive. Censorship can be used to prevent politically motivated propaganda. Plagiarism can be prevented. It prevents companies from spreading inaccurate or exaggerated claims about their products or other companies. Almost everything at some point could be placed underneath a category of censorship. Depending on where people are located and who or what is going on in your nation or even community, your public media on the television, Internet, radio, music, movies and books could be censored. The removal of materials that is considered obscene or morally unacceptable. For example, por-
nography is usually censored from the public and even prosecuted if it involves young minors. The government that occurs when information is withhold from their citizens mostly used to prevent hateful expressions. The censorship of novels is either implicated nationally or by state. So, if a community finds a book to be inappropriate, they can have the book removed from public and school libraries. Such books include The “Harry Potter” series, “Animal Farm,” the “Goosebumps” series, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” and To Kill A Mockingbird.” All movies released for public viewing in theaters are censored in some way or another. The usual censored items include pornography and obscenities, up to a certain age. Other movies are censored due to racial or
Ban and Constitution
It’s a ban, ban, ban era!
Now ‘eating something’, ‘meeting with someone at somewhere’ and ‘making a movie on someone’ can be ‘offended’, let see what Constitution says Chandan Jangid
Jaipur. Human rights in Indian Constitution are defined very well but in these days, human rights are no more protected. Let’s cast a glance over some recently happened incidents and tries to understand the Human rights in Constitution & their violation. 1. Anti-Romeo operation is a very popular project now days, especially as Adityanath yogi’s first effort. The project is working for safety of women and girls, to protect them from eve teasing. With this objective, many examples also have seen, that Anti-Romeo squad is working for taking action against eve teasers, but if a couple is in relationship and be together as per their mutual consent, then why squad disturbing them? why they are harassing them? There are some videos in social media claims these allegations against Squad. Also, there is a mute consent of Society, in the name of protecting or “controlling” our girls, as society still considers our girls
as “izzat”. Constitution also prefer that you have a freedom to live in relationship or marry any female or male belong to any caste, creed or religion. 2. Meat and Cow protection is also popular issue in India. Now in Gurugram, some fundamentalist forces shut down the legal meat shops including KFC. They claim that the culture of this country is “Vegetarian”. In a way, they are trying to create a homogeneous society having hegemony of a particular sect. Constitution gives us permission to sell meat, if having a license issued by concerned govt. authorities. But this hooligan raises a question, if those shopkeepers are doing anything wrong, then why many groups or squads taking law in their hands? Are they lawmakers? They should complain about it to concerned govt officials. Although, selling meat is not illegal, but in states, beef is banned. But, beating and killing innocent people like Pahlu khan is unconstitutional. Constitution doesn’t give permission to take law in our hands. 3. Recently attack on Sanjay leela bhansali raised many question about limitation of freedom of expression and hooligans. Most of us know about incident happened
at the set of movie “Padmavati” and devastated story of Sanjay leela bhansali’s set by Shree Rajput Karni Sena in Jaipur. Related Laws of india say, if anyone expresses any view through movie, showing any allegedly ‘offensive’ interpretation, then there is Censor board available.Also, if you are not happy with it, you can sue them in Court. Every person has a freedom to express their point of view & movie is a way to show director’s point of view. Again, everybody has a right to discard that point of view and can go to the court, but nobody has right to take law in their hands. 5.Moral Policing in the name of Costumes There are many religious, castlist or fundamentalist regimes in India, which declares some costumes of girls, ‘offensive’. In the name of teaching so called morality, these forces tries keeping new girls in traditional limits. There are many examples, declaring ban on having Mobile phones, scooty or ‘offensive costumes’ by some social, Political or fundamental groups. Many times, Our Society also gives a mute consent to them against our girls. But, Indian Constitution gives us freedom to wear what you want, to live as you want (leaving some special conditions), to live in any religion as you want. That directly means to break traditional taboos against girls, and new girls are breaking it bravely.
political correctness. Moral authorities are determined to find what behavior is acceptable for individuals in today’s society. Most cases of musical censorship involve lyrics which deal with drugs, violence and sexual topics. The extent of Internet censorship varies from country to country. Many countries, like the Untied States have little to no Internet censorship, while others limit basic new information from their citizens. Many times the Internet in these countries will be censored after elections, protests and riots. Many people agree that some things need to be censored. While others are outraged at the thought of any individual’s work being censored. Many times things that are being viewed or heard by larger masses of
people should be censored for the sole fact that you do not know who is in that group of people. Exposing underage children to inappropriate and vulgar content can have negative effects on a child. Adults have a much easier time choosing what to watch, and are able to work around inappropriate work. Their ways of thinking and understanding are not always able to understand adult content. The Internet is a very useful tool in today’s society, and just like any other great tools in life, there will be people who abuse it. Access at certain age levels or times should be controlled. Example: access to sexually explicit internet materials should not be allowed at the high school level.
National 500 vehicles gutted in fire at Raipur station parking lot Chirag Sharma Jaipur. Nearly 500 vehicles parked at a parking lot near Raipur Railway Station in Chhattisgarsh were gutted in fire on Sunday, according to reports. It took about to hours to completely douse the
flame and burning the situation under control, an official added. the summer heat coupled with winds and fuel spill aided the spread of the fire, police officials said.
Cartoon Corner Chandan Jangid
Page 02 THE MESSAGE
MondayApril 10, 2017
Ban and Constitution
Censorship and Cinema, a long history Censorship has suppressed the free expression in the name of morality
Bhumika Dhingra
J
aipur. Censorship is the suppression of free speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions. A film “Lipstick under burqa” raised the question of relevance of Censorship, again. This film is banned declared as “very feminist”. Also, In 90s, movie “Bandit queen” was censored in the name of “obscenity”. There are some fundamentalist powers, which tries deciding the content as per their fundamentalist social norms. Recently attack on Sanjay Leela bhansali, attack at shooting spot of movie “Water” in Benaras are a few examples. Let’s cast a glance on those allegations of “obscenity”, “Socially or Politically offensive material” and laws related to it. Obscenity Watching or possessing pornographic materials is apparently legal, however distribution of such materials
is strictly banned. The Central Board of Film Certification allows release of certain films with sexual content (labelled A-rated), which are to be shown only in restricted spaces and to be viewed only by people of age 18 and aboveI India’s public television broadcaster, Doordarshan, has aired these films at late-night timeslots. Films, television shows and music videos are prone to scene cuts or even bans, however if any literature is banned, it is not usually for pornographic reasons. Pornographic magazines are technically illegal, but many softcore Indian publications are available through many news vendors, who often stock them at the bottom of a stack of non-pornographic magazines, and make them available
on request. Most non-Indian publications (including Playboy) are usually harder to find, whether softcore or hardcore. Mailing pornographic magazines to India from a country where they are legal is also illegal in India. In practice, the magazines are almost always confiscated by Customs and entered as evidence of law-breaking, which then undergoes detailed scrutiny. Censorship by medium: 1. Press: The Indian Press currently enjoys extensive freedom. The Freedom Of Speech, mandated by the constitution guarantees and safe-
guards the freedom of press. However, the freedom of press was not always as robust as today. In 1975, the Indira Gandhi government imposed censorship of press during The Emergency. It was removed at the end of emergency rule in March 1977. On 26 June 1975, the day after the emergency was imposed, the Bombay edition of The Times of India in its obituary column carried an entry that read, “D.E.M O’Cracy beloved husband of T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justica expired on 26 June”. In 1988 ‘defamation bill’ introduced by Rajiv Gandhi but it was later withdrawn due to strong opposition to it. 2. Safeguards: The Supreme Court while delivering judgement in
Sportsworld case in 2014 held that “A picture of a nude/semi-nude woman ... cannot per se be called obscene”. 3. Film: The Central Board of Film Certification, the regulatory film body of India, regularly orders directors to remove anything it deems offensive, including sex, nudity, violence or subjects considered politically subversive. According to the Supreme Court of India. According to the Supreme Court of India: Film censorship becomes necessary because a film motivates thought and action and assures a high degree of attention and retention as compared to the printed word. The combination of act and speech, sight and sound in semi darkness of the theatre with elimination of all distracting ideas will have a strong impact on the minds of the viewers and can affect emotions. Therefore, it has as much potential for evil as it has for good and has an equal potential to instill or cultivate violent or bad behaviour. It cannot be equated with other modes of communication. Censorship by prior restraint is, therefore, not only desirable but also necessary.
Interview JU Student
Interview JU faculty
Food is all about an individual’s choice
No need of ban or moral policing Dr. Keshav Nath, Head, Department of English criticises ban Young India knows it’s choices and censorship at some extent
JU Student supports freedom of expression, Individual’s choice of food and right to live with whom they want
Bhumika Dhingra
Dr. Keshav Nath, HOD, English
Jaipur. Censorship on various Media materials, Ban on Non veg food and Moral policing by State and some fundamentalist forces are burning issues, nowadays. In a democratic country like India, what does it mean? Our Student Journalist Bhumika Dhingra interacted with one of
JU academic faculty, Dr. Keshav Nath, HOD, English. Here are some excerpts; Bhumika: Should non-veg. food be completely banned in India? Dr. Keshav: Food is for taste of tongue. Food is all about an individual’s choice . But, one should also be aware of behavioral conduct of one’s country. Bhumika: Should alcohol be banned? Dr. Keshav: Alcohol should be banned, as it leads to lot of conduct which is below dignity for humanity. Bhumika: What is your review on moral policing through Costumes, Anti Romeo operation etc, in india? Dr. Keshav: Morality is a way according to which you differentiate between what to do and what not to do.
Morals are for example of behaviour. In country like India moral values have changed it’s meaning with time and it will continue to change so we should accept what is on and adhere to wait and watch. Bhumika: Is Censorship in the media necessary for censoring or banning any movie? Dr. Keshav: Media should portray only what is not what it seems as Plato has said in Republic. Government must be open to an honest criticism. Media should not be censored, but it should be answerable to public for sheer truth.Honest media is focused on the working principle of government not on an individual’s life.
Jaipur. JU youngsters are completely in support of freedom of expression, right to choose their partners and criticises any kind of moral policing. Here is an interview of JU student Lakshika Mathur, BA JMC, II Semester taken by our student journalist Bhumika Dhingra. Bhumika: Should non-vegetarian food be completely banned in India? Lakshika: I don’t think non-veg should be totally banned, because people have different choices and it is not wrong to eat non vegetarian food as it is not harming anyone. Although, it is supplementing food requirements of human. Bhumika: Should alcohol be banned? Lakshika: According to me, Alcohol should not be banned. Intake of alcohol in limited amount doesn’t
harm anyone, instead of that government should start some programs to make people aware about the harmful effects of excess intake of alcohol. Bhumika: What is your review on moral policing in the name of costume, anti romeo operations etc, in india? Lakshika: Morality varies from person to person, culture to culture. But, moral policing in the name of anti romeo operation is questionable. Actually, controlling youngsters in the name of Security of girls is very clever argument. We request a responsible government to keep safe right of youngsters to meet, as per mutual consent. Moral policing in the name of Costume is a question against hypocracy of our Society. We need to change it. Bhumika: Is Censorship necessary for banning and censoring some media materials ? Lakshika: I don’t think, it should be completely banned as everyone have freedom to speak. Everyone has their own opinions, but if someone has any objection, they must go to court. Taking law in hand will ruin our law and order.
Printed and Published by JECRC University, Ramchandrapura, Sitapura, Jaipur. Sub Editors: Rimjhim Sharma, Mohitinder Singh Maan, Bhumika Dhingra, Chandan Jangid, Chirag Sharma, Layout Designer: Pandit Amandeep, Rimjhim Sharma Chief Sub-Editor: Shailendra Pratap Singh Bhati,Editor: Dr. Neeraj Khattri , DISCLAIMER: The views reserved and opinions expressed in this paper are author(s) own and the facts reported by them have been verified to the extent possible, and the publisher are not in any liable for the same. This is for internal circulation only. Please send your valuable suggestions and feedback on ; themessage@jecrcu.edu.in