There is a wealth of reading on the topic of censorship, it enforcement and use runs in tandem with the historic development of every society on the planet, used to further political agendas, engender ways of thinking and wallpaper over past indiscretions. Where its limits and benefits rest is surely one of the great questions. I remember a conversation, pints and Sunday papers surrounding me in a Dublin pub after Christmas where I took issue with a picture of a topless woman straddling a man in a strip club in the Sunday Independent and yet today I think it is a disgrace that Greece are compelling Dustin to change the lyrics to his entry for the Eurovision Song Contest to suit the politically sensitive. There is as ever an onus on us as individuals to inform ourselves and make decisions, however there is a malaise of conflict even within the above examples as to the duty those providing information owe to recipients and the struggle to discern if we have uncovered an accurate portrayal of events.

6. Film Censorship

Ireland’s attitudes can certainly be mapped by the changing approach of our film censor. In our current censor, John Kelleher we have a man who correctly asserts he is a guide dog rather than a watch dog so that outright bans have been very rare (’Boy Eats Girl ‘ proving an exception for depicting a suicide attempt) and cuts have been rarely ordered (particularly graphic scenes were cut from ‘Fight Club’ for instance). While there are unsurprising instances of movies such as ‘A Clock Work Orange’ and ‘The Life of Brian’ being banned in the past, that ‘Casablanca’ was banned caught my attention – the film in fact being banned twice! The first ban was political. Wartime “propaganda” movies were taboo because they might inform the Irish people, blanketed by emergency legislation, of what was happening in the world. When Casablanca came up for scrutiny again, it was nailed on moral grounds: as Rick and Ilsa, Bogart and Bergman clearly enjoyed a relationship of the nonmarital kind. In the eyes of the 1940s censor, this was enough to demand a scissors job so that what remained wasn’t even the shell of a movie.

5. The War on Terror

From day one of the now 5 year old war in Iraq there was a ban on any media coverage of the return of soldiers coffins draped in US flags and similarly in Canada. Following a successful legal challenge the Pentagon was forced to release hundreds of photographs, which quickly made their way to news organisations. The legal challenge was taken by a website, thememoryhole.org, who requested the photographs under Freedom of Information, unsuccessfully at first before making an appeal. No such request had been made by larger news organisations prior to this as there was no knowledge of the existence of these pictures.

4. ‘1984′

The written word, the publishing press, the spread of ideas on a huge scale – each interlinked and restricted to varying degrees. 1984 a book in itself depicting a world riddled with censorship, right down to policing our thoughts was itself banned with Orwell writing brilliantly of history being scraped clean. The book was admonished by both sides of the political spectrum, banned in the USSR until 1988 and protested against in America for spreading ideas associated with Communism. I’ve singled out 1984 for the doubling up of relevance of being a book steeped in the idea of rigid vigilance, one claimed so often to have been eerily prophetic, itself subject to censorship on publication.

3. Holocaust Denial

An undeniably controversial topic, it was a startling realisation for me of how information can be used when I first read of such a movement. Banned in 13 countries, including a number who were perpetrators there is nevertheless the very real question as to whether stopping individuals expressing their views freely as to the events and extent of the Holocaust is a violation of a very basic right to freedom of speech and expression. Muddying the waters of history, intensifying the extremes of political conflict still resonant today, there are reams of paper that could be consumed with how information and versions of events are recorded and delayed, none so great an example than the Holocaust, its aftermath and the establishment of Israel.

2. Northern Ireland

During the Troubles in the North censorship was used to prevent Sinn Féin and IRA members from having access to the media. Under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, it was forbidden to broadcast the voice of Sinn Féin members. The UK operated a similar rule between 1988 and 1994, although British broadcasters subverted this censorship by dubbing Sinn Féin speeches and interviews, so that for instance the BBC would use a hired actor to relay the words of a speech by Gerry Adams. Irish broadcasters adhered much more strictly to the rule, and RTÉ refused to dub speeches and even refused to broadcast Sinn Féin members when they were talking about matters completely unrelated to the Northern Troubles. The Section 31 broadcasting ban was lifted in 1993 by Minister for Arts, Culture & the Gaeltacht Michael D. Higgins as part of the peace process.

1. ‘Ulysses’

There seems to be an interestign pattern of great literature having been banned. An interesting tidbit though is that it is a common misconception that ‘Ulysses’ was banned in Ireland. For those who strove to wade through the dense stream of the novel, the most shocking element was a masturbation scene amongst a number of other obscenities, earning it a publication ban in the US and UK but interestingly not in Ireland as the book was never actually published here so could not be banned though it did become widely available. The film version was very much banned however and only received a cinema release for the first time in 2001.