The Introduction...
Hi everybody, my name is Kamal Ibrahimli and this is my blog. In this particular article i will discuss issues related to censorship in media. I will describe why does the censorship is so important nowadays and how it changed the popular media. In the past few years censorship became a very crucial topic of discussion, because there are a lot of opinions and points of view related to it. By itself, censorship is responsible of controlling sources of information and various media products which we consume mainly by the global web. The main aim of censorship is basically to have a right to ban all the inappropriate materials and information which is considered to be harmful by the government of the particular state. Thus, it is a form of limitation for the mass media products due to the social norms and law. We are used to deal with various forms of censorship daily in our lives. We can observe different censored to varying degrees material using internet, watching television, listening to music or playing video games. From year to year, censorship is playing more crucial role in mass media, thus making it more limited but more secured.

With the technological progress and era of internet, humanity obtained access to almost any information they need. Global web is growing and developing with each passing year and it means that the more material is now available in mass media. Moreover, with each year the number of internet sites, number of TV channels, magazines, and newspapers is increasing making it more difficult to control. Not all of the material is provided by the reliable sources and some of them can contain inappropriate and harmful information. That’s why it is very important to have censorship institutions that can regulate flow of information before it reaches the audience.
In my second part of the project, I would like to present two different types of censorship applied in media, to make you, dearest reader, be more familiar with the concept of censorship.
Internet Content Censorship
Firstly, I want to present the type of censorship that is familiar to the bigger part of internet users, which is VEVO. VEVO is the corporation which is collaborating with such mass media giants as Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. The main aim of invention of this company is to make mass media material more acceptable and regulated for using it for the advertisement for partners like McDonalds, Heineken, Coca-Cola and Sony. Moreover, the VEVO Corporation is responsible of controlling music sources for big online music stores like Amazon and iTunes (Bloomberg). Most of us are familiar with the VEVO from the YouTube, another major corporation to cooperate with VEVO censors. The reason why VEVO became that important for YouTube is that to promote site users with higher quality video materials and regulations which are use to correspond to social and legal norms. However, under the VEVO regulation, YouTube faced with the more significant changes. A lot of the material was just deleted from the portal and the biggest part of them became either not available in particular countries or censored according to the new censorship standards. Nevertheless, the greatest achievement of VEVO referring to YouTube material regulations is to establish different criteria and norms according to region and state.

This kind of censorship took into account religious and ethical questions in order to provide only the appropriate materials and information to particular regions (VEVO Blog). For example, you can watch some video in United States using YouTube, but you will not be able to watch the same video in Azerbaijan or Turkey using the same site. After the VEVO revolution of YouTube, a lot of explicit material was censored by some degree making them more acceptable for the audience.
However, VEVO faced with the number of negative feedbacks from the audience because of their sanctions. For example, because of the lyrics, some rap music videos were completely removed from YouTube and the biggest part was provided as cut-edited, but making them almost impossible to listen to.
Works Cited :
"- Bloomberg." - Bloomberg. Web. 06 May 2012. <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive>.
"Music Evolution Revolution!" VEVO Blog. Web. 06 May 2012. <http://blog.vevo.com/privacy-policy/>.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2MVzP4MaJ0&ob=av2e here you can see the music video, where you can barely hear third verse of the song, because of the strong language censorship
moreover, you can find some additional information about VEVO and Google cooperation here : http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-01-22/tech/30081138_1_ratings-system-music-service-umg
Censorship in Video Games

Grand Theft Auto is an example of video game that caused controversy, over and above the debate surrounding the violent game play, for allegedly encouraging racist crimes. The game takes place in "Vice City", which is in details copy of existing city Miami. It involves gang wars between Haitians and Cuban refugees and the player is involved in crimes related to them. For example, in one of the missions the character is using a phrase like "Kill the Haitians Dickheads" which is both implying violence and racist hatred (Playstation.com). However, after the Haitian-American Coalition threatened to sue, “Rockstar” (GTA game programmers) removed the word "Haitians" from that phrase.
I also want you to look at this video of Ukranian boy who is very addicted to the video games, especially violent ones. The video shows his reaction when his mother deleted all of his games from computer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo49pot_RMo&feature=fvwrel
It is just a piece of Ukrainian TV program about this boy and how he used to struggle with his addiction to video games.
This example perfectly shows, why it is necessary to have a censorship on violent video games, as it damages nervous system and can be very dangerous.
Work Cited :
"Off-Topic Discussions." GTA Vice City Attacked As Racist. Web. 06 May 2012. <http://community.us.playstation.com/thread/3729530?start=0>.
It is very interesting, you should read this !
To be more familiar with censorship in mass media, I want to provide three different articles about cases of censorship. They are all different, but they perfectly describe the implementation and reasons for censorship in various media aspects.
1. Nas's "Nigger" album
Famous hip-hop artist Nasir Jones, known by the stage name as Nas recorded his studio album in 2008 but had a problem with the title. Basically he was planning to release his CD named "Nigger", but then he had problems with his recording label, the journalists, civil-rights activists and even some fans who were against of such controversial act.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1573400/does-nas-new-lp-rank-history-controversial-albums.jhtml
2. Blocking internet pornography ... that's censorship, isn't it?
Here you can read about censorship in porn industry, how it is related to politics and business and more interesting information about the most hot media industry.
This article describes the real situation about blocking the pornography sources, why it is so difficult to implement regulations and what can be the consequence of filtering porn sites from the web.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/organgrinder/2010/dec/20/ed-vaizey-pornography
3. Titanic 3D : Nude Kate Winslet scene
Very interesting article about Chinese censores, who decided to cut the scene from 3D Titanic movie, where Leonardo Di Caprio is drawing nude Kate Winslet. According to the article, it was done, because 3D picture was looking too realistic, and people may want to touch the breast of the hollywood star. Perfect example of local oriented censorship. Thus, Chinese will not see the full version of 3D Titanic.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/04/kate-winslet-nudity-china-censored-titanic-3d.html
Essay
Nowadays, we live in the era of internet, where all the sources of information are available for the consumer, so you can easily find any material you need. However, it became more difficult to control and regulate all the fields of mass media products. Censorship became an integral part of mass media. Most of us can face with exertion of censorship daily browsing the web, watching TV or playing video games. There are several reasons why we should have censorship in our society. First of all, any mass media product should follow and respect legal and social norms, so should not be provocative or harmful. Secondly, mass media should be aware of its various age audience, so that children should not see any violent movies or play video games which contain outrage. Moreover, mass media must always be oriented and adopted to particular are in which it distribute their material. Mass media should respect religious and ethical aspects of the different regions and do not let any disputes on social or political level. Protecting intellectual property rights and existing economic interests is another crucial reason for having censorship in media. As one already knows, mass media has a great impact on world politics, thus; it is necessary to regulate stream of information and material that is provided and published for free access. Moreover, with the development of mass media we now have different kinds of social networks like: facebook, twitter, vkontakte, myspace etc. Before the registration in these sites, you are asked to carefully read and learn the regulations under which the particular network is working. For example the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities says: "You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence", "You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory", "We can remove any content or information you post on Facebook if we believe that it violates this Statement", and "If you are located in a country embargoed by the United States, or are on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals you will not engage in commercial activities on Facebook (such as advertising or payments) or operate a Platform application or website" (Facebook Legal Terms). Thus, even social networks nowadays are working under regulations and limits, which will not its user post or comment anything that can be controversial or not matching to the legal norms of society. Censorship is making a progress in video game industry as well. We can see the prevention and cautions on the video game CD boxes and advertisement, so that the consumer will be aware of the product content and to which age audience it is directed. Despite the belief that the censorship to some extend contradicts to the principals of democracy, free speech and free press, I believe that it is better to be protected and only receive accurate and reliable sources of information and mass media, than having tonnes of illegal and inappropriate materials which are not regulated and controlled by anyone.
Work Cited :
"Facebook." Web. 04 May 2012. <http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms>.
Current events

I think that it could serve as the example that censorship is not only directed to avoiding or limitations, but also on providing the real situation because it is what society need. This case shows that trying to portray model girls as the perfect and ideal icons, who doesn't have any problems with skin or weight is in fact damaging the minds of the young girls, because they perceive totally different definitions of what is "beauty".
here you can find video serving as promo of Julia's sanctions against popular magazine, moreover you can find the link to her petition in the description for video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xpiZoTzreg
Work Cited:
"Julia Bluhm, Seventeen Reader, Petitions Magazine To Feature Non-Airbrushed Photos."Stylelist. Web. 04 May 2012. <http://www.stylelist.com/2012/04/30/julia-bluhm-seventeen-petition_n_1466416.html>.
#2
Second event is about Tunisian court that ordered the head of Nessma TV channel Nabil Karoui pay a fine of 2,400 dinars (1,700 dollars) for the display of Franco-Iranian animated film "Persepolis," insulted the local Islamists. It is reported by Agence France-Presse.
By decision of the Court Karoui was fined "for the film, which violates public order and threatens moral principles." In the cartoon, in particular, was shown to God, whose image is banned in Islamic culture. In addition Karoui has been fined two members of the TV channel (one technician) - the sum of 1,200 dinars (850 dollars).
Channel Nessma TV cartoon show October 7, 2007, and two days later, on October 9, the building was attacked about 300 TV Tunisian Islamists. They tried to set fire to the building, but the police dispersed the protesters and arrested about 30 people. Nabil Karoui apologized for the cartoon show, but was forced to appear before the court. A hearing on his case began on 16 November, and has since been postponed twice. In Tunisia it around "Persepolis" was the reason for the dispute between supporters of the secular and religious state.
"Human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned the action against the punishment, saying that it is similar to the pressure on freedom of speech during the reign of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Ali's regime was overthrown during the Tunisian revolution in January 2011" (AFP.com).
Cartoon "Persepolis" was filmed in 2007 on the eponymous graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi Iranian writer living in France. In the book, Satrapi has described his childhood and youth in Iran, in particular, has shown through the eyes of a child the events of the Islamic Revolution and war with Iraq. The film was awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.
Although Iranian officials have condemned the film for "placing an unrealistic image of the great achievements and results of the Islamic revolution", it has been shown in Tehran, with a few cut scenes.
This is the example of censorship related to religious issues. As one already knows, in Islamic culture it is completely unacceptable to show God as something material. According to Koran, portraying God as similar to man is the biggest sin that one can make. Thousands of religious Islamists were against streaming Nabil's cartoon in Tunisia, because it is serious threat to their religion.
By decision of the Court Karoui was fined "for the film, which violates public order and threatens moral principles." In the cartoon, in particular, was shown to God, whose image is banned in Islamic culture. In addition Karoui has been fined two members of the TV channel (one technician) - the sum of 1,200 dinars (850 dollars).
Channel Nessma TV cartoon show October 7, 2007, and two days later, on October 9, the building was attacked about 300 TV Tunisian Islamists. They tried to set fire to the building, but the police dispersed the protesters and arrested about 30 people. Nabil Karoui apologized for the cartoon show, but was forced to appear before the court. A hearing on his case began on 16 November, and has since been postponed twice. In Tunisia it around "Persepolis" was the reason for the dispute between supporters of the secular and religious state.
"Human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned the action against the punishment, saying that it is similar to the pressure on freedom of speech during the reign of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Ali's regime was overthrown during the Tunisian revolution in January 2011" (AFP.com).

Although Iranian officials have condemned the film for "placing an unrealistic image of the great achievements and results of the Islamic revolution", it has been shown in Tehran, with a few cut scenes.
This is the example of censorship related to religious issues. As one already knows, in Islamic culture it is completely unacceptable to show God as something material. According to Koran, portraying God as similar to man is the biggest sin that one can make. Thousands of religious Islamists were against streaming Nabil's cartoon in Tunisia, because it is serious threat to their religion.
Work Cited :
"Accueil | AFP.com." Accueil. Web. 04 May 2012. <http://www.afp.com/>.
here you can watch the trailer of the cartoon : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY
Educational Articles :
First educational book that I would recommend in order to get deeper knowledge on censorship is book by Henry Reichman "Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for School". I found this article very informative and helpful in terms of better understanding the role of the censorship for educational centers and for knowledge in general. Book is describing the way of teaching in modern universities, the way in which they teach students courses that related to religion, anatomy, history or psychology. The main issue is are the modern educational centers teaching too much information, that is not properly filtered and can be understood wrongly by students. Moreover, a special space is provided to discuss the sex education. Is there too much of it, or not enough ? Author is describing the situation in which school libraries lost their position because of the internet development, so that with each year more and more schools are tend to cooperate with web database instead of asking students to use books. But can we really rely on internet sources and how they are different from books? Are they passed same censorship format as books or not ? To these, and to many more questions you can find answers in the book by Henry Reichman who is critically analyzing the style of education and its relation to censorship in terms of information sources.
"The debate over education is and should be ongoing and constructive. It is, after all, a debate about the future, about the fate of our precious resource, our children" (Reichman)
Source :
Reichman, Henry. Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for Schools. Chicago: American Library Association, 1993. Print.
Second, but not less interesting article is book by Francis Couvares "Movie Censorship and American Culture". I found this book very interesting in terms of description of how does the first censorship was invented in American society, what was the reasons and consequences of it. Author is clearly and accurately analyzing situation prevailing in the American community, situation in science, television and publishing with the advent of censorship. He also describes how censorship is connected with religion, ethics, problems of minorities and genders. What attracted me the most is that how the author tries to show the reader that it is not possible to have only a single view of the censorship. While there will becensorship community, there will always be those who will be against certain sanctions. Couvares also makes perfect distinction between censorship institution in America and Europe. He refers to political system and the historical events to support his idea that censorship is first of all the ethics, but ethics itself is different in every culture. Very interesting book that compares the situation on censorship when it was just invented and how it is different now under the Hollywood and MTV policies.
here you can watch the trailer of the cartoon : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY
Educational Articles :
First educational book that I would recommend in order to get deeper knowledge on censorship is book by Henry Reichman "Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for School". I found this article very informative and helpful in terms of better understanding the role of the censorship for educational centers and for knowledge in general. Book is describing the way of teaching in modern universities, the way in which they teach students courses that related to religion, anatomy, history or psychology. The main issue is are the modern educational centers teaching too much information, that is not properly filtered and can be understood wrongly by students. Moreover, a special space is provided to discuss the sex education. Is there too much of it, or not enough ? Author is describing the situation in which school libraries lost their position because of the internet development, so that with each year more and more schools are tend to cooperate with web database instead of asking students to use books. But can we really rely on internet sources and how they are different from books? Are they passed same censorship format as books or not ? To these, and to many more questions you can find answers in the book by Henry Reichman who is critically analyzing the style of education and its relation to censorship in terms of information sources.
"The debate over education is and should be ongoing and constructive. It is, after all, a debate about the future, about the fate of our precious resource, our children" (Reichman)
Source :
Reichman, Henry. Censorship and Selection: Issues and Answers for Schools. Chicago: American Library Association, 1993. Print.
Second, but not less interesting article is book by Francis Couvares "Movie Censorship and American Culture". I found this book very interesting in terms of description of how does the first censorship was invented in American society, what was the reasons and consequences of it. Author is clearly and accurately analyzing situation prevailing in the American community, situation in science, television and publishing with the advent of censorship. He also describes how censorship is connected with religion, ethics, problems of minorities and genders. What attracted me the most is that how the author tries to show the reader that it is not possible to have only a single view of the censorship. While there will becensorship community, there will always be those who will be against certain sanctions. Couvares also makes perfect distinction between censorship institution in America and Europe. He refers to political system and the historical events to support his idea that censorship is first of all the ethics, but ethics itself is different in every culture. Very interesting book that compares the situation on censorship when it was just invented and how it is different now under the Hollywood and MTV policies.
Source :
Couvares, Francis G. Movie Censorship and American Culture. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1997. Print.
Classmates' blogs : the top 5
I have visited and identified for myself the five most interesting and helpful blogs, which I will present one by one. First blog that caught my attention is Hajar Bayramova's blog about violence in media. The reason why I have picked this particular blog as the most interesting is that violence in media sources became very big and debatable issue. In her blog Hajar is discussing problem of children influenced by violence in media. Nowadays, children are unfortunately very exposed to the harmful effects of the media, which come from movies, video games, advertisements and even cartoons. Hajar divided her blog into several parts where she presents different sources of media and explains how they influence children with their negative content. Moreover, to each of the examples the added very interesting videos to support her statements. I completely agree with the author in her relation to problem of violence and support her point of view. Great work!
Second, but not less interesting blog is from Shuip Rufati and is about globalization and terrorism. In his blog Shuip is discussing how the terrorism is portrayed nowadays in news by media sources and yet it is very interesting issue. Most of us watch TV daily and follow global news so that we constantly hear about acts of terrorism. But are the comments for these news are always relevant ? Author of the blog is mainly arguing on the issue of Yugoslavia and Serb nationalistic fights.
Another blog that I found very enthralling was blog on misogyny by Karina Mukhanova. In her blog Karina is touching an issue related to the hatred towards females by dominant male society. Negative attitude toward females is what is nowadays very challenging and debatable issue both in psychological and psychical aspects. Karina starts her blog with very clever post explaining the roots and causes of this phenomena in our society. Then she link her issue with different aspects and sources of media to make her work even more interesting. The videos for the posts are also very helpful and absorbing. Moreover, Karina successfully found and linked her topic to the current event happening in France related with president elections. Overall, very interesting and informative work ! Well done !
One more blog that I want to highly recommend for you all to visit is blog by Assel Biyeva about the freedom of speech. What i found more interesting in this blog is structure of content that is very well organized. Assel have chosen for her blog I would say the topic that is one of the main issues related to the sources of media. Nothing excessive about her work, very informative, helpful and easy for understanding.
Finally, the last blog that I want to mention, is blog by Lucie Bergerova related with portraying love in media. I found very interesting, because it is really amazing how media shapes our views about the norms in society, different values, perspectives and attitudes. Especially it was very exciting part about the human relations in social networks that unfortunately are becoming more popular with each year, but that's the serious problem to deal with ! Overall, very well-chosen topic and great job with the blog.
Classmates' blogs : the top 5
I have visited and identified for myself the five most interesting and helpful blogs, which I will present one by one. First blog that caught my attention is Hajar Bayramova's blog about violence in media. The reason why I have picked this particular blog as the most interesting is that violence in media sources became very big and debatable issue. In her blog Hajar is discussing problem of children influenced by violence in media. Nowadays, children are unfortunately very exposed to the harmful effects of the media, which come from movies, video games, advertisements and even cartoons. Hajar divided her blog into several parts where she presents different sources of media and explains how they influence children with their negative content. Moreover, to each of the examples the added very interesting videos to support her statements. I completely agree with the author in her relation to problem of violence and support her point of view. Great work!
Second, but not less interesting blog is from Shuip Rufati and is about globalization and terrorism. In his blog Shuip is discussing how the terrorism is portrayed nowadays in news by media sources and yet it is very interesting issue. Most of us watch TV daily and follow global news so that we constantly hear about acts of terrorism. But are the comments for these news are always relevant ? Author of the blog is mainly arguing on the issue of Yugoslavia and Serb nationalistic fights.
Another blog that I found very enthralling was blog on misogyny by Karina Mukhanova. In her blog Karina is touching an issue related to the hatred towards females by dominant male society. Negative attitude toward females is what is nowadays very challenging and debatable issue both in psychological and psychical aspects. Karina starts her blog with very clever post explaining the roots and causes of this phenomena in our society. Then she link her issue with different aspects and sources of media to make her work even more interesting. The videos for the posts are also very helpful and absorbing. Moreover, Karina successfully found and linked her topic to the current event happening in France related with president elections. Overall, very interesting and informative work ! Well done !
One more blog that I want to highly recommend for you all to visit is blog by Assel Biyeva about the freedom of speech. What i found more interesting in this blog is structure of content that is very well organized. Assel have chosen for her blog I would say the topic that is one of the main issues related to the sources of media. Nothing excessive about her work, very informative, helpful and easy for understanding.
Finally, the last blog that I want to mention, is blog by Lucie Bergerova related with portraying love in media. I found very interesting, because it is really amazing how media shapes our views about the norms in society, different values, perspectives and attitudes. Especially it was very exciting part about the human relations in social networks that unfortunately are becoming more popular with each year, but that's the serious problem to deal with ! Overall, very well-chosen topic and great job with the blog.