Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
"Censorship" comes from the ancient Roman word "censor". The first reference to the term "whitewash" dates back to 1762 by a Boston Evening Post article. In 1800 the word was first used in a political context, when a Philadelphia Aurora editorial said that "if you do not whitewash President Adams speedily, the Democrats, like swarms of flies, will bespatter him all over, and make you both a speckled as a dirty wall, and as black as the devil."
Source: Wikipedia
Stalin: a well-known example of sanitization policies comes from the USSR under Stalin, where publicly used photographs were often altered to remove people whom Stalin had ordered executed. Though past photographs may have been remembered or kept, this deliberate and systematic alteration of history in the public mind is seen as one of the central themes of Stalinism and totalitarianism.
Source: Wikipedia
Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs was an animated cartoon directed by Bob Clampett for Warner Bros. in 1943. It is notorious for being one of the Censored Eleven: one of several Warner Bros. cartoons produced at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood animation based on politically incorrect racial humor. The racial overtones of the cartoon led to its being banned, and it has rarely been shown on television in the years since its release. (see Censored Eleven) Nevertheless, Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs is often praised and defended by film scholars and animation historians. It has occasionally been included on lists of the greatest animated films ever made. The story is, of course, that of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, known to its audience from the Walt Disney feature-length cartoon. However, all the characters are African-American and the story is set in the modern age (during the Second World War). The title character is voiced by Vivian Dandridge.
Source: Wikipedia
In 2003 forty-two journalists were killed, mainly in Asia and the Middle East (in the Iraq war), compared with 25 in 2002. Moreover, all of the other so-called "indicators" have increased notably : 766 journalists detained, at least 1,460 physically attacked or threatened, and 501 news media censored.
Source: Reporters Without Borders
A data haven is a computer or a network that holds data protected by both technical means (encryption) and location in a sovereign nation. Such nations have either no laws, or poorly-enforced laws against the most common uses of data havens and no extradition treaties. This term was coined by Bruce Sterling in his 1989 novel Islands in the Net. Among the more noble reasons for establishing data havens is access to free (political) speech for users in countries where censorship of the Internet is practiced.
Source: Wikipedia
1981, the International Year of Disabled People, saw the BBC ban Ian Dury's "Spasticus Autisticus" until after dark. Drury, who himself had suffered from polio, had written the song as a positive message for people with disabilities. The chorus' refrain, "I'm spasticus, autisticus", was inspired by the response of the rebelling gladiators of Rome who (at least in the version of the story as portrayed in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus), all answered to the name of their leader, "I am Spartacus", to protect him.
Source: Wikipedia
07 July 2001: Jewish conductor Daniel Barenboim has done a great deal to make German classical music acceptable in Israel, but caused controversy on this date by conducting Wagner (an anti-semite) in Jerusalem. After protests by holocaust survivors and pressure from the Israeli government the original programme was changed in an act of self-censorship. Barenboim agreed not to play Wagner's Die Walküre, replacing it with pieces by Robert Schumann and Igor Stravinsky. At the end of the concert Barenboim announced his intention to play Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde as an encore, and that those who did not want to hear it should leave first. This statement was greeted with loud applause by the majority, and the disapproval of a minority. Barenboim was denounced as a fascist in the press, though some would argue that fascism was actually to be found in the act of censorship. Barenboim wanted to play the music because of the great quality of the music in itself.
Source: Wikipedia
The Human Rights Act is an anagram of Ahem! Scathing Truth
The National Council for Civil Liberties is an anagram of Blunt, vitriolic anarchic loonie-lefties
Source: Anagram Genius
Cryptonomicon is a sprawling novel by Neal Stephenson that is more a combination of historical fiction and contemporary techno-thriller than the science fiction of Stephenson's earlier works. It follows two parallel sagas: that of cryptographers from World War II attempting to crack Axis codes, and that of their descendants attempting to use modern cryptography to build a data haven in a fictious state resembling Brunei. It also details the political machinations that follow both efforts.
Source: Wikipedia
All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. (George Bernard Shaw)
Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion. (David Cronenberg)
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads. (George Bernard Shaw)
Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever. (Nadine Gordimer)
Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. (Potter Stewart)
I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it. (Mae West)
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