Academic Censorship - United States Response

By: Matthew Giannini, Alex Kochmar, William Luebke, Cao Nguyen, Rob Orifici, and Scott Preddy

Judicial Precedents

           Yes, blocking certain newsgroup from the university's news server by the deans is a case of censorship. According to the German public perception, they support a bill passed in 1926, which made it possible for the government to censor any inappropriate messages from the newsgroup. For instance, the two parties, Catholic Center and Nationalist, support this bill by appointed boards for censorship for each of the Federal states.These eight-member panels, including representatives from publishers', authors', and booksellers' groups as well as from youth, welfare, and educational organizations, were authorized to prohibit the advertising, display, or sale to minors of any book regard morally objectionable. On that spectrum, the judicial views held similar perspective as the public opinion. A bill similar to Exon amendment was passed in the German Reichstag. It focuses in the "Act for the Protection of Youth Against Trashy and Smutty Literature," a national censorship bill proposed to the Reichstag. The Schmutz und Schund (Smut and Trash) bill aroused fears in German literacy and intellectual circles, but the Minister of the Interior eased the apprehensive with assurances that it "threatens in no way the freedom of literature, the arts, or the sciences," having been designed solely for the "protection of the younger generations."

Summary of Laws and Relevant Organizations

           In the United States we are protected from censorship by the first amendment allowing for freedom of speech. This amendment has been modified over the years to protect citizens from abusing this right. The changes protect people from words or communication that causes immediate injury or breach of peace, slander, libel, and obscenity. Many groups exist that seek to broaden this freedom, and others that seek to limit it more. These groups include the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and SAUC (Students Against University Censorship) to name a few.

US Position for Cultural Views

           It is the view of the overwhelming majority (especially among the younger generation of today) that censorship is not a good thing and it is strongly contested whenever the authorities (i.e. government) tries to censor something. Consider the recent case in New York where mayor Guiliani threatened to pull public funding from the Brooklyn museum because of what was considered by him to be an inappropriate art exhibit. This is only one example. Issues of censorship (or freedom of speech) are always arising in the realms of pornography, literature and methods of political expression (e.g. flag burning). These issues are complicated by the extreme media attention they tend to receive; thus, a clear-cut view on the predominant mode of thinking is sometimes difficult to determine in American culture. The view cultural can best be viewed (sadly) as hypocritical. We highly value the first amendment protection to freedom of speech, yet we are quick to condemn expressions of speech that we find "distasteful". However, it is probably safer to assume that as America moves more steadily in the liberal direction, censorship will become less tolerated and more people will embrace myriad forms of expressing their views and beliefs.