Censorship In China

http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=18567

-Summary-
This is a transcript of Mr Jiao’s talk at the UCLA, where he discussed mainly about the issue of censorship in China at a national level.

The Chinese government really makes an effort to isolate China from the rest of the world. Censorship in China is practiced in the television and radio channels company, the printing industry and even the Internet. There are even exclusive follow up systems that have been set up to monitor and evaluate the content of these media. In addition, there is also a ‘system of punishment for media agencies’ (extracted) that ignore the censorship rules.

Entries to certain websites have been prohibited and news on anything related to China has not been made available on the Internet; in Beijing University, international magazine subscriptions are rarely available for reference; there is strict control in the importation of books from foreign countries; and calling into China is much cheaper than calling out from China, a measure taken by the government to ‘regulate the flow of information’ (extracted). China has taken the definition of censorship to another level by imposing such restrictions.

'China’s isolation from the outside world has been a long tradition, which ultimately implanted a sense of fear in the general public' (extracted). This is why China is still so adamant about changing her censorship policy and is also the reason why China is one of the least exposed countries in the world.

-Assumptions-
Mr Jiao assumes that censorship is detrimental for the society. His transcript did not include the advantages of censorship, instead it mainly focuses on the disadvantages. He meticulously described each measure taken by the government to prevent information from leaking to the outside world. Mr Jiao is also trying to imply that censorship equals to a reduced flow of information, this can be seen through his descriptions in certain paragraphs.


(The author is a citizen of China himself. And what is interesting about this article is that even he is aware of the censorship policy and wants to make some reforms for the good of the country.)

Film festival director about censorship in Singapore

http://www.singapore-window.org/sw00/000424ws.htm

The main gist of the article is how films in Singapore have ratings and how these censorships violate the film producer’s work of art. By censoring the films, viewers will not be able to appreciate the filmmakers original work of art, this can be seen in, "contradiction between government censorship and the artistic freedom” (extracted).
Also, films are a form of art produced by film makers and their forms of art, in a way, represent life and by censoring this, art doesn’t reflect life anymore. “Usually art reflects life but if so much censorship is taking place, then art doesn't reflect life anymore” (extracted)

The Singapore International Film Festival also stated that they will remove censorship so that producers work is not altered. “But the next stage for us, I think, is to have the Film Festival exempted completely from censorship”(extracted).It is also mentioned that those movies which are rated 21 should not be cut anymore as the people who watch these movies are already over 21 and should know better and “take responsibility for what they see”(extracted).

The assumption made by the Singapore International Film Festival and the Singapore Government is that viewers do not want to see things, which through the government’s eyes, are perceived as morally wrong. The government doesn’t realize that the viewers may want to see these things, and that they can handle viewing these things by themselves. The government is assuming that what they are censoring is for the good of their citizens but they don’t realize that at the same time, they are ruining the filmmaker’s work of art.
They are also implying that the citizens are not mature and old enough to take responsibility for what they watch and therefore the government takes the initiative to censor the movies for the public.