Moldova State University

Faculty of Letters
Department of Translation, Interpretation and Applied Linguistics

Report: Censorship during Communist Period

Submitted by: Dina Braga, EG173TR

Coordinator: Nadejda Șelaru

Chisinau 2019
Contents:
 Introduction
 Communist Theory and Press Freedoms
 China
 The Soviet Union
 North Korea
 Conclusion
 Glossary
 Bibliography
Introduction
Censorship is when an authority (such as a government or religion) cuts out
or suppresses communication.
This has been done widely. All countries, religions and societies have their limits as to what can be
said, or written or communication by art or nowadays by computer.
Certain facts are changed or removed on purpose. This may be done because it is considered
wrong, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or other authority. This can be done for
different reasons.
A censor is a person whose job is to look at all types of media and remove material. There are
many reasons to censor something, like protecting military secrets, stopping immoral or anti-religious
works, or keeping political power. Censorship is almost always used as an insult, and there is much
debate over what censorship is and when it is okay.
When there is freedom of speech and freedom of the press, most information can published.
However, even in developed countries with much freedom of the press, there are some things that
cannot be published. For example, journalists are usually not allowed to publish many secrets about
the military, like where troops will be sent on a mission. Pornography is censored in some countries
because it is seen as not moral. For these reasons, the government might arrest anyone who publishes
it.
Governments and private organizations may engage in censorship. Other groups or institutions
may propose and petition for censorship. When an individual such as an author or other creator
engages in censorship of their own works or speech, it is referred to as self-censorship. It occurs in a
variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press, radio,
television, and the Internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to
control obscenity, child pornography, and hate speech, to protect children or other vulnerable groups,
to promote or restrict political or religious views, and to prevent slander and libel.
Most often things are censored for one or more of the following reasons:
Moral censorship: It is thought that certain facts may be inappropriate for the audience. There are
many countries that limit who may see pornography. Additionally, it may be forbidden to show or
write about certain forms of pornography, such as child pornography. Obscene words may be
forbidden. Since about 1960 pressure groups have tried to stop the use of some words in favour of
others. This has happened especially with words that describe race and gender.
Military censorship: In a war, all news reports might be censored. This is done to guarantee that
the enemy cannot get information that might be used to plan an attack. Very often, this includes the
size of military troops, but also the strategies and tactics used
Political censorship: A government (or a political party) may hold back certain kinds of information.
This is done to avoid rebellions or embarrassment.
Religious censorship: Often, there is a dominant religion which removes or changes certain kinds of
information. Examples for this are the Vatican censoring Galileo Galilei, or the Iranian Ayatollah
Khomeini banning The Satanic Verses, a novel by Salman Rushdie. In Romania, many schools no
longer teach evolution, and many schools in the US and UK refuse to discuss Creationism.
Corporate censorship: (Often large) businesses stop the publication of material because it shows
some of their business idea, or their employees in a bad light, and bad light is not good.Direct
censorship may or may not be legal, depending on the type, location, and content. Many countries
provide strong protections against censorship by law, but none of these protections are absolute and
frequently a claim of necessity to balance conflicting rights is made, in order to determine what could
and could not be censored. There are no laws against self-censorship.
 Communist Theory and Press Freedoms
Freedom of information, speech and the press is firmly rooted in the structures of modern
western democratic thought. With limited restrictions, every capitalist democracy has legal provisions
protecting these rights. Even the UN Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the general assembly
in 1948 declares "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers" (although as Article 19, it comes after the right to hold
property, be married and hold a nationality, among others). As such, western ethics heavily favor the
nearly unfettered rights to speech, press and information. Such rights might be tailored to protect state
security from a Lockesian social contract perspective, but a Kantian categorical outlook surely
provides for a society in which everyone can speak freely is better to one in which no one can speak
freely.
Communism, as a primarily economic system, is much quieter on the issue of individual
human rights. Two conflicting positions on these freedoms arise with analysis of communist
theory. The first is an argument against individual freedoms. In a communist society, the individual's
best interests are indistinguishable from the society's best interest. Thus, the idea of an individual
freedom is incompatible with a communist ideology. The only reason to hold individual speech and
information rights would be to better the society, a condition which would likely be met only in certain
instances rather than across time, making the default a lack of freedom.
On the other hand, the idea of perfect equality in communism argues for a right of expression and
press. Since each individual is equally important, each should have an equally valid point of
view. Indeed, Marx defended the right to a freedom of the press, arguing in 1842 that restrictions,
like censorship were instituted by the bourgeois elite. He claimed censorship is a tool of the powerful
to oppress the powerless.
Indeed, many implementations of communism favored a constitutional democracy, albeit
usually with only one party. Before and at the creation of many communist countries, a desire for
freedom from the oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeois translated into strongly voiced support
for individual freedoms for speech, dissent and information. Chairman Mao, in encouraging his
countrymen to prepare for WWII more than a decade before he came to power, proclaimed "[the
people] should subject ... the party in power, to severe criticism, and press and impel it to give up its
one-party, one-class dictatorship and act according to the opinions of the people....The second matter
concerns freedom of speech, assembly and association for the people. Without such freedom, it will
be impossible to carry out the democratic reconstruction of the political system." In 1945, closer yet
to his assumption of power, Mao proclaimed, "Two principles must be observed: (1) say all you know
and say it without reserve;(2) Don't blame the speaker but take his words as a warning. Unless the
principle of 'Don't blame the speaker" is observed genuinely and not falsely, the result will not be 'Say
all you know and say it without reserve." More striking still is the fact that this latter quote is recorded
in "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung," more commonly known as the Little Red Book, a
veritable bible of Chinese communism considered infallible during Mao's lifetime.
Thus, on the balance, it seems communist theory is compatible with freedoms of speech,
information and protest, but it is far from a fundamental right such as it is under democracy and
individual-centered ethics systems like that of Kant and Locke. Freedom of information should only
be granted when communist society as a whole is likely to benefit. In this light, it makes much more
sense that communist leaders, while still a persecuted opposition philosophy, would strongly support
speech rights and later reject them when communism becomes the ruling system. At that point,
access to oppositional speech and information is no longer beneficial to the communist state, and
thus no longer needed in communist philosophy.
 CHINA
In communist society, the freedom of expression is only granted when it benefits society as a
whole. While communism struggles to become the ruling system, it supports freedom of speech. Once
it becomes the dominant party, freedom of speech is no longer useful to the Communist state as
freedom of speech allows for oppositional speech.
Modern day China, more than almost any other country in the world, severely restricts its
citizens’ freedom of speech and expression. Oddly enough, Article 35 of the current Chinese
constitution, written in 1982, stipulates "Citizens of the PRC have freedom of speech, publication,
assembly, association, procession and demonstration." Up to the advent of the internet, the Chinese
government had been able to successfully curtail this freedom in nearly all its physical manifestations.
China has a tightly controlled traditional media, China forces all published information to be from
official sources and to be vetted through the state.
Censorship in the People's Republic of China is implemented or mandated by the PRC's ruling
party, the Communist Party of China (CPC). The government censors content for mainly political
reasons, but also to maintain its control over the populace. The Chinese government asserts that it has
the legal right to control the Internet's content within their territory and that their censorship rules do
not infringe on the citizen's right to free speech. The government of China defended some forms of
censorship as a way of upholding proper morals. Those forms of censorship include limitations on
pornography, particularly extreme pornography, and violence in films. The PRC (People's Republic
of China) has historically sought to use censorship to 'protect the country's culture,' and is seen as the
cultural authority of China. During the Cultural Revolution of the 1970s, foreign literature and art
forms, religious works and symbols, and even artifacts of ancient Chinese culture were deemed
"reactionary" and became targets for destruction by Red Guards teams. Although much greater
cultural freedom exists in China today, continuing crackdowns on banning foreign cartoons from
Chinese prime time TV and limits on screening for foreign films could be seen as a continuation of
cultural-minded censorship. The foreign TV shows and films on internet also become the target of
censorship. In July 2017, Bilibili, one of the most popular video sites in China, removed most of
American & British TV shows, and all foreign categories like "American drama" to comply with
regulations. In order to limit outside influence on Chinese society, the authority began to restrict the
publishing of children’s books written by foreign authors in China from early 2017, reducing the
number of these kind of books from thousands to hundreds a year, which usually was the bestselling
one in this country.
A number of religious texts, publications, and materials are banned or have their distributions
artificially limited in the PRC. Christian Bibles are allowed to be printed in China but only in limited
numbers and through a single press. Their sale is also restricted to officially sanctioned churches, with
online sales having been recently cracked down upon. Religious literature is not readily available or
universally tolerated. In January 2016, five people were arrested for simply "buying and selling
officially forbidden Christian devotionals". They were sentenced to 3–7 years in jail.
Foreign and Hong Kong news broadcasts in mainland China from TVB, CNN
International, BBC World Service, and Bloomberg Television are occasionally censored by being
"blacked out" during controversial segments. It is reported that CNN has made an arrangement that
allowed their signal to pass through a Chinese-controlled satellite. Chinese authorities have been able
to censor CNN segments at any time in this way. CNN's broadcasts are not widely available
throughout China, but rather only in certain diplomatic compounds, hotels, and apartment blocks.
Numerous content which have been blacked out has included references to the Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989, the Dalai Lama, the death of Zhao Ziyang, the 2008 Tibetan unrest, the 2008
Chinese milk scandal and negative developments about the Beijing Olympics.
During the Summer Olympics in Beijing all Chinese TV stations were ordered to delay live broadcasts
by 10 seconds, a policy that was designed to give censors time to react in case free-
Tibet demonstrators or others staged political protests.
In January 2009, during a television report of the inauguration of U.S. President Barack
Obama, the state-run China Central Television abruptly cut away from its coverage of Obama's
address when he spoke of how "earlier generations faced down fascism and communism." Foreign
animation is also banned from prime-time viewing hours (5pm to 8 pm) to protect domestic animation
production.
Like Internet censorship, enforcement in television censorship is increasingly ineffective and
difficult because of satellite signal hacking systems which give direct access to channels and programs
on any satellite that services the Asian Pacific region.
China's state-run General Administration of Press and Publication screens all Chinese
literature that is intended to be sold on the open market. The GAPP has the legal authority to screen,
censor, and ban any print, electronic, or Internet publication in China. Because all publishers in China
are required to be licensed by the GAPP, that agency also has the power to deny people the right to
publish, and completely shut down any publisher who fails to follow its dictates. Resulting, the ratio
of official-to-unlicensed books is said to be 40:60. According to a report in Zona Europa, there are
more than 4,000 underground publishing factories around China. The Chinese government continues
to hold public book burnings on unapproved yet popular "spiritual pollution" literature, though critics
claim this spotlight on individual titles only helps fuel book sales. Publishing in Hong Kong remains
uncensored. Publishers such as New Century Press freely publish books, including lurid fictional
accounts, about Chinese officials and forbidden episodes of Chinese history. Banned material
including imported material such as that published by Mirror Books of New York City are sold in
bookshops such as "People's Commune bookstore" patronized by shoppers from the mainland.
 The Soviet Union
Censorship in the Soviet Union was pervasive and strictly enforced. All media in the Soviet
Union was controlled by the state including television and radio broadcasting, newspaper, magazine,
and book publishing. This was achieved by state ownership of all production facilities, thus making
all those employed in media state employees. This extended to the fine arts including the theater,
opera, and ballet. Art and music was controlled by ownership of distribution and performance venues.
Censorship was backed in cases where performances did not meet with the favor of the Soviet
leadership, with newspaper campaigns against offending material and sanctions applied through party-
controlled professional organizations.
In the case of book publishing, a manuscript had to pass censorship and the decision of a state
owned publishing house to publish and distribute the book. Books which met with official favor, for
example, the collected speeches of Leonid Brezhnev were printed in vast quantities while less favored
literary material might be published in limited numbers and not distributed widely. Popular escapist
literature such as the popular best-sellers, mysteries and romances which form the bulk of Western
publishing was nearly non-existent.
Possession and use of copying machines was tightly controlled in order to hinder production
and distribution of samizdat, illegal self-published books and magazines. Possession of even a single
samizdat manuscript such as a book by Andrei Sinyavsky was a serious crime which might involve a
visit from the KGB. Another outlet for works which did not find favor with the authorities was
publishing abroad.
It was the practice of libraries in the Soviet Union to restrict access to back issues of journals and
newspapers more than three years old.

Censorship was performed in two main directions:

 State secrets were handled by the General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the
Press (also known as Glavlit), which was in charge of censoring all publications and broadcasting
for state secrets
 Censorship, in accordance with the official ideology and politics of the Communist Party was
performed by several organizations:
o Goskomizdat censored all printed matter: fiction, poetry, etc.
o Goskino, in charge of cinema
o Gosteleradio, in charge of radio and television broadcasting
o The First Department in many agencies and institutions, such as the State Statistical
Committee (Goskomstat), was responsible for assuring that state secrets and other sensitive
information only reached authorized hands.

Works of print such as the press, advertisements, product labels, and books were censored by Glavlit,
an agency established on June 6, 1922, to safeguard top secret information from foreign entities. As
peasant uprisings defined pre-World War II Soviet censorship, nationalism defined the period during
the war. Defeats of the Red Army in literature were forbidden, as were depictions of trepidation in
Soviet military characters. Pressure from the Pravda prompted authors like Alexander Alexandrovich
Fadeyev to redact a section in The Young Guard where a child reads in the eyes of a dying Russian
sailor the words "We are crushed." Since Joseph Stalin regularly read Pravda, which was itself
censored by Glavlit, it was wise for an author to obey Pravda’s advice. Also, Stalin handpicked who
received the Stalin Prize, further incentivizing an author’s pandering to Stalin’s tastes, besides the
obvious risks involved with disregarding them.
With the start of the Cold War, was proclaimed a curse on anti-Westernization. Historically, Russia
has been technologically inferior to the West, which is demonstrated by Glavlit editing out a section
of Sevastopol which enviously describes London's technological accomplishments in flattering
detail. Religious intolerance and atheism was another goal of post-World War II censorship, and was
an extension of anti-Westernization. In the children's novel Virgin Soil Upturned, references to God
making mist out of tears shed by the poor and hungry were rescinded.
The "Khrushchev Thaw", beginning in 1953 with Stalin's death, brought liberation of previously
banned literature, and greater liberty to the authors writing during this time. Glavlit's authority to
censor literature decreased after they became attached to the USSR Council of Ministers in 1953. The
nascence of de-Stalinization—the government's remission of Stalin's policies—is evident by censors
replacing his name in For the Power of the Soviets, with words like "the party," or "the Supreme
Commander." Anti-Westernization was also suppressed, and in 1958 "Sevastopol," became divested
of cuts meant to hide the West's technological advancement and Russia's backwardness.
When Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a novel about a prisoner's brutal
experience in the gulag, was released to the public in 1962, it was clear that socialist realism was
disappearing. However, censorship was not completely absent from this era. Emmanuil Kazakevich's
1962 novel, Spring on the Oder, was posthumously injected in 1963 with descriptions of American
bigotry, selfishness, and racism which was not in the novel originally. These examples of anti-
Westernization indicate that works were still expurgated for propaganda, but censorship still declined
with Khrushchev's de-Stalinization.
While Glavlit censored literature, Stalin micro-managed the film industry. He made
"recommendations" on what should be included, edited, or deleted entirely. However, while he was
obsessed with films, Stalin was uneducated on film production. Due to this ignorance, Stalin thought
of the director as a mere technician who carried out instructions. Therefore, he dictated that camera
angles should not be shot from below, or above the actor, but always at eye level. Stalin's callowness
over the importance of the director's work was of great benefit to the filmmakers since, "with few
exceptions, they survived. Censorship of film was commonplace since the USSR's inception.
Beginning with the Russian Civil War (1917–1922), censoring film effectively advanced socialist
realism, a mode of art production that positively portrays socialism and constituents of socialist
nations. As propaganda tools against the masses—particularly the illiterate—themes of anti-
Westernization and nationalism depicted socialist realism in films by negatively portraying elements
of capitalist countries while positively depicting the Soviet Union. One example is the 1940 film, The
Law of Life, which was retracted from cinemas after ten days because it negatively portrayed
a Komsomol leader by depicting him as hypocritical and abusing his power. Stalin organized a
military tribunal which castigated the scenarist Aleksandr Avdeenko, accusing him of inaccurate
representations of Soviet reality. While nothing was said of the director, Avdeenko was jettisoned
from the party. However, directors were not always spared, as in the case of Margarita Barskaia. Her
film Father and Son features a factory director who prioritizes his work over educating his son, Boris.
Portraying Boris as an unhappy child and the father—a war hero—as a slothful parent was regarded
as slanderous by a film reviewer. After her movie was removed from cinemas she was arrested, and
died in the gulag.
 North Korea
Censorship in North Korea ranks among some of the most extreme in the world, with the
government able to take strict control over communications. All media outlets are owned and
controlled by the North Korean government. As such, all media in North Korea get their news from
the Korean Central News Agency. The media dedicate a large portion of their resources toward
political propaganda and promoting the personality cult of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-
un. The government of Kim Jong still has absolute authority over and control of the press and
information.
Radio or television sets which can be bought in North Korea are preset to receive only the
government frequencies and sealed with a label to prevent tampering with the equipment. It is a serious
criminal offence to manipulate the sets and receive radio or television broadcasts from outside North
Korea. In a party campaign in 2003, the head of each party cell in neighborhoods and villages received
instructions to verify the seals on all radio sets.
Because North and South Korea have used different analog television systems
(PAL and NTSC respectively), it has not been possible to view broadcasts across the border between
the two countries without problems in reception or additional equipment. According to the Daily NK,
it is possible to broadcast news for North Korea through short-wave radio. Possessing a short-wave
radio is against the law in North Korea, but the radios are allegedly confiscated and resold by corrupted
agents of secret police. "A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment," a study
commissioned by the U.S. State Department and conducted by Inter Media and released May 10,
2012, found that despite strict regulations and draconian penalties, North Koreans, particularly the
elites, have increasing access to news and other media outside the state-controlled media authorized
by the government. While access to the internet is controlled, radio and DVDs are common media
accessed, and in border areas, television. Up to one in two urban households own a Notel, a portable
media player made in China which has been popular in North Korea since about 2005 and was
legalized in 2014, and has been credited with facilitating the extension of the "Korean Wave" (Hallyu,
the increase of the popularity of South Korean pop culture internationally) into North Korea.
As of 2011, USB flash drives were selling well in North Korea, primarily used for watching South
Korean dramas and films on personal computers.
North Korea is ranked at the bottom of the Press Freedom Index rankings published annually
by Reporters Without Borders. To become a journalist in North Korea, one has to graduate from
college. After an ideology review and a strict background check, the student is drafted by the college
dean and the managers. The drafted journalist will normally go through a probation period of 4 to 5
years and is then stationed after an assessment.
In North Korea, journalism as a job is to guard, defend, and advocate for and defend both the
party and party leaders. Since the role is defined as being a political activist and a fighter who can
mobilize a crowd, a journalist in North Korea should be a true Kim Il-sung and a fervent political
activist, with a war correspondent spirit and political qualification. Journalists in North Korea are
reeducated continuously. The organization that takes charge of the reeducation of journalists in North
Korea is the 'Chosen Reporter Alliance.' It is the strongest and the most systematized organization
among the reporters and journalists' political idea education organizations. The organization trains
journalists and reporters on philosophy, economics, world history, world literature, and foreign
languages.
Arguing about the contradictions in the system of North Korea itself is considered treason and
is treated as a major violation in North Korean society. Over 70 percent of reports of Korean Central
Broadcasting are allotted for Kim's idolization and propaganda system. The rest of the reports are
spent on blaming and predicting the collapse of the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
The reporters in North Korea spend their time writing flattering articles about the Kim Dynasty. Kim
Jong-Il used to punish the people who wrote from different point of view, saying "Words describe
one's ideas." After reeducation, a journalist who works for over 15 years and has made a major
contribution is titled a 'distinguished journalist.
The media of North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The
constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government
prohibits the exercise of these rights in practice, unless it is in praise of the country and its government
and leader. The government not only tightly controls all information coming in and out of the country,
but seeks to mold information at its source. A typical example of this was the death of Kim Jong-Il,
news of which was not divulged until two days after it occurred. Kim Jong-un, who replaced his father
as leader, has given every indication he will largely follow in his father's footsteps. However, new
technologies are being made more freely available in the country. State-run media outlets are setting
up websites, while mobile phone ownership in the country has escalated rapidly. “There is no country
which monopolizes and controls successfully the internet and information as North Korea does,” said
Kang Shin-sam, an expert on North Korean technology and co-head of the International Solidarity for
Freedom of Information in North Korea, a nonprofit based in South Korea. North Korea now has
about four million mobile-phone subscribers—roughly one-sixth of the population and four times the
number in 2012, according to an estimate by Kim Yon-ho, a senior researcher at Johns Hopkins
University’s School of Advanced International Studies. The media is used to promote contrasting
domestic and international agendas. Kim Il-Sung was said to recognise its power to influence North
Koreans and confuse the outside world. Often, news is released to the international community and
withheld from the domestic North Korean population, and other news is released domestically but not
internationally.
Though some international news coverage is given in DPRK media, much is ignored, is
mentioned very briefly, or is announced several days after the event, as was the case with
the Ryongchon disaster in 2004. Reports are also notoriously secretive. The media remained silent on
domestic issues, by not reporting on economic reforms introduced by the government such as
increasing wages and food prices, rarely mentioning Kim Jong-Il until his first party position in 1980 [
and the launching of missiles. Restrictions on the dissemination of information do not only apply to
the civilian population, but to North Korean officials themselves, depending on ranking.
In contrast, the idea of reunification of the two Koreas is a pervasive theme in the North
Korean media, as is the near constant "threat" of an "imminent attack" by the foreign countries. In
recent years, the media describes in detail satellite launches launched by the country as a sign of the
DPRKs "economic prowess." The media rarely reports bad news from the country; however on one
rare occasion, the press acknowledged a famine and food shortages in the 1990s.
 It has had a role in supporting anti-government demonstrations in South Korea; in the late
1980s it launched a propaganda campaign urging South Koreans to "fight against the 'government'
without concessions and compromise", using false claims to portray the demonstrations as fighting
for communism, which, rather, were in support of liberal democracy. It continues to support South
Korean anti-government groups, quoting relevant societies and unions critical of the government
policy and denouncing government "crackdowns", calling for freedom of expression and democracy
for South Korean citizens. From January 1 to June 22, 2009, North Korean media was reported to
have criticised the South Korean president 1,700 times — an average of 9.9 times daily.
During the Khrushchev era of the Soviet Union when relations were tense, North Korean
media would openly reprint articles critical of the USSR, often written by North Korean
officials. However, once relations between the DPRK and Soviet Union improved, the articles would
no longer appear. In the following years, both North Korean and Russian media would play down
sensitive anniversaries.
North Korea has 12 principal newspapers and 20 major periodicals, all published
in Pyongyang. Foreign newspapers are not sold on the streets of the capital. Every year, North Korean
press jointly publishes a New Year editorial, also broadcast by KCNA, which regularly attracts the
attention of the international news media.
Newspapers include:

 Rodong Sinmun (Labour Daily) – (Central Committee of the WPK)

 Joson Inmingun (Korean People's Army Daily)
 Minju Choson (Democratic Korea) – government organ
 Rodongja Sinmun (Workers' Newspaper)
 The Pyongyang Times (English-language; published in the capital)
Several newspaper journalists from North Korea were secretly trained in China to covertly report on
events inside North Korea. November 2007 marked the first publication of the Rimjingang magazine,
which is distributed secretly in North Korea and in neighboring countries. The magazine covers the
economic and political situation in the country. The journalists have also provided footage of public
executions to South Korean and Japanese media.
Conclusion
Thus, I would like to say that censorship is imposed in communist countries by the government mainly
for political reasons. The censorship is imposed because communist countries such as: China, North
Korea or the former the Soviet Union, want that people from these countries to have one and the same
opinion and think that their form of the government is the best one. This is the reason why there are
forbidden many articles, books, TV programs, newspapers, magazines which show the best parts of
democracy or capitalism.
The most restrictive communist country is North Korea. There people have difficulties accessing the
internet, in order to become a journalist, you have to pass special courses where people are taught how
to censor the information. In North Korea all foreign news are forbidden and the local news are
presented in such a way, presenting only the best parts of their regime.
In China the government is also very strict about the information presented to its citizens. It is not so
strict as in North Korea, but here the authorities have control over the books, TV programs and all
tools of mass-media. It appears that the modern Chinese government has no interest in conforming to
the platitudes of free speech, press and dissent espoused by Marx, Mao and its own active
constitution. While dissent may seem compatible within the framework of theoretical communism, it
appears to be at odds with the communism practiced in China. In revoking its founders’ statements,
the government's position may seem to oppose the spirit of communism; yet, the choices make perfect
sense when considered in the framework of making decisions not on a priori ethical assumptions like
democracies aspire to do, but rather on the basis of what is best for the communist society at the
moment. While the world wide web may yet be too much for the well-oiled Chinese censorship
machine to handle, the government has done remarkably well so far in providing a slimmer, more
China-friendly version of the internet to its citizens.
Also, the authorities of the Soviet Union, especially Stalin had everything under control and allowed
to be published only the information which should have critised the communist regime and to show
only its best parts.
Glossary

censorship cenzură

moral censorship cenzură morală

political censorship cenzură politică

religious censorship cenzură cu character religios

suppressed reprimat

right of freedom dreptul la libertate

ownership proprietate

execution execuție

to ban a interzice

communist regime regim comunist

demonstrator manifestant

free speech discurs liber

sanction sancțiune

to castigate a critica aspru

slander defăimare

libel pamfelt

domestic population populație internă

missile rachetă

performance venues locuri de performanță

national security securitate națională

embarrassment jenă

freedom of press libertatea presei

radio broadcasting radiodifuziune

traditional media mass-media tradițională

to black out a cenzura

audience audiență

state security securitatea națională

constitutional democracy democrație constituțională

self-censorship auto-cenzură

petition petiție

obscene words cuvinte obscene

dissent părere diferită

seal sigiliu

regulation regulament

treason trădare

state-controlled media mass-media controlată de stat

dissemination propagare

crackdown represiune

state-run media mass-media de stat

government organ organ de guvernare

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4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332538861_The_Protean_Nature_of_Communist_
Censorship_The_Testimony_of_Collections_Functions_of_Censorship_under_Socialism
5. https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/communism-computing-
china/censorship.html