Legacy Censorship Methods

How older forms of censorship continue to restrict writing, publishing and public speech.

Summary

Legacy censorship methods are older, direct and often visible forms of repression against writing, publishing, journalism, art and public speech.

They include book bans, publishing bans, licensing systems, prosecution, imprisonment, exile, physical violence and other methods used to prevent expression before publication or punish it after publication.

These methods have not disappeared. In many countries they remain severe. The point of including them here is to show how older forms of censorship now sit alongside newer forms of digital and transnational repression.

What this method includes

This method includes book bans, publishing bans, pre-publication approval, licensing systems, seizure of books or equipment, closure of newspapers or publishing houses, prosecution, imprisonment, forced exile, travel bans, physical attacks and assassination.

It also includes direct pressure on editors, translators, printers, distributors, booksellers, libraries, schools, theatres, broadcasters and cultural institutions.

How it works

Legacy censorship usually works through visible authority. A state, court, ministry, police force, censor, licensing body or state-controlled institution may decide that a book, article, poem, performance, song, film, newspaper, website or public statement cannot appear.

Sometimes the restriction happens before publication. A manuscript may be cut, rejected, delayed or banned. A publisher may need permission to print. A journalist may lose a licence. A venue may be told not to host a performance or discussion.

In other cases, punishment comes after publication. Writers, journalists, artists or publishers may be prosecuted, imprisoned, exiled, threatened or attacked because of work that has already appeared.

The wider effect is often self-censorship. Even when only one writer is punished, many others learn what subjects, names, words or forms of criticism may be dangerous.

Case studies

Case studies will be added here as interviews, documentation and verified examples are published.

Relevant interviews

Relevant interviews will appear here when they are tagged with this method.

Related articles will appear here when they are tagged with this method.