Publishing Today: Controversy versus Censorship

Re: Publishing Today: Controversy versus Censorship


Dear Susan: You're absolutely correct! Time limited my editing, and
I hate editing my own work. Thought "ya'll here" would be so kind.
Today I have "new eyes in New York" and will be slicing and
dicing...here goes...Thanks for the recommendation! jannneee--- In
newyorkcitywriters@yahoogroups.com, Susan J Elliott
wrote:
>
>REWRITE/EDITED

Publishing Today: Contraversy versus Censorship

Depending on the truth, the much heated contraversy in

publication today is the weighing of printing contraversial

material over the right of the artist/writer to express

him/herself. Is it the editor's right to censor writers'

artistic expression, and thereby their valued opinions?

This contraversial debate is raging in politics,

literature, the arts, basically any written publication, or

artistic endeavour. Is anyone asking why is this censorship

an issue? Do we need to be concerned about censorship

today?

Many journalistic submissions to various publishers are becoming,

more and more frequently, censored by editors

prior to publication. Some writers contend that the obtruse

editing is bordering on censorship and this censorship has ruined

their ability to freely express their opinions and artistic style,

etc. This arrest of artists and journalists creative license and

basic freedoms to free speech, free expression, freedom of the press,

is greatly compromising the journalists' and artists, etc.,

integrity, livelihood, and basic human rights.

Under the UN charter of Rights and Freedoms, The Constitution,

and many other democratic nations' constitutions, journalism,

writing, the arts, etc., is allowed these freedoms as a necessary

requirement and obligation of a free state. If these freedoms are

bring dismantled or destroyed how are we to defend these

freedoms, and in the war on terror climate of today, is it safe to

defend these rights? Is there a way to regain the freedoms lost by an

overprotective nature of the War On Terror? Can we keep the freedoms

and loose the paranoia associated with the terror atmosphere found in

journalism/writing/arts today?

Editing is coming precariously close to outright

censorship in the form found in many a fascist government which does

not honour the absolutes in regards to freedoms of a

democractic people. Does anyone care? Is anyone doing

anything about it, or even noticing the trend in

journalism, etc., today? If nothing is done, it should be recorded,

if nothing else. Could Stephen Speilberg record this lack of

journalistic freedom, etc, by way of a movie like Shoah? We would all

benefit from shedding the light on any possible infringement to our

rights as writers and artists. It would benefit everyone to determine

where this obstruction of justice is coming and would get us

back on the path to the truth. We would then, hopefully begin to

realize the importance of these and other freedoms and know the

essential truths necessary for our survival as democratic nations of

the world.

This grave oversight of any possible infarction of human rights

issues should be a worrisome sign of impending doom. After all, we

are suppose to live for freedom, and what if we cannot express this

freedom? We are no longer free. The nations' democratic tenet is

eliminated from the equation, and therefore we cease to exist as a

sovereign nation, at least on paper anyway. How would this lack of

freedom of the press effect the country in general, or the world

specifically? The prognosis does not look good.

As far as any potentially breach of our rights as journalists,

writers, artists, etc., this action of censorship is a prelude to our

times as an under-represented public. Any democratic nation has the

right to various freedoms, they do not need to be suspended

indefinitely as they are being suspended today.

If we are no longer able to read The Times,(for example) but

rather, we are only able to read a washed-out, propagandized, cookie-

cutter version of The Times we will be the loser in this power-

struggle of "button, button, who gets the paper"? The citizens of

democracy will be the ones to suffer, ultimately for

this "stormtrooper" mentality of editing-in-excess journalism.

Freedom lovers beware, you have nothing to loose but your words.

Does this lack of freedom worry the naive, uneducated and

unassuming reader who has no idea what is happening in the world or

the way events are unfolding and how? Ultimately, this lack of

information will negatively effect the reader, it will keep

them "dumbed down" indefinitely, with no set time frame. Is this fair

or just?

Has the time already arrived in haste to make waste of

our once "oh so sweet" freedoms? Freedoms where many of our

countries' young died in numerous wars in the name of said

Freedom? Our young are still dying today. For how long?

How would these soldiers feel today if they were alive, and

those soldiers that are alive today, fighting in the field, how do

they feel about the truth being censored?

There is serious doubt that the overt protectionism is

necessary to this degree, and that we should be given back more of

our freedoms lost pre 911. The question here; are we being

protected or deceived? And for what purpose? The never-

ending war on terror may destroy all rights and freedoms

under the banner of "protectionism". We seriously need to

rethink and rewrite our future, if we are "allowed" to

rewrite the future.

If there will be no freedom now or in the immediate future,

what is the time frame in regards to regaining our much

loved freedoms? Perhaps freedoms can be suspended "for a

time" but eventually things should get back to "normal",

correct? If our freedoms are being put on a "holding

pattern" how much longer will it be until we get to express

ourselves and our world? How are we going to be able to

express and write about our world when it is being filtered

to an enormous degree.

Without the truth we are spinning our wheels, we are frustrating

our best efforts, we are eliminating the one thing which made us

great in the first place, Freedom!

War On Terror could be described in history by the hold it has

on journalistic intergrity and artistic license as "Freedom with an

expiry date". Should not the rallying cry read, "give me Liberty or

give me Death" rather than "Freedom: expiry date 9/11"? Has mankind

changed so radically from the inspirational freedom-loving French

philosophy entrenched in the Constitutions of the democratic

world to edit the word "freedom" and its usage

entirely from our press?


Maybe the only place to find the word freedom and the

description of freedom in the press today will be on the

editor's cutting room floor. How did this happen? How did

we let this happen to us?

This silent invasion of the journalists' expression of the

written word found in the press and other publications is indeed

slowly eroding all of our rights as citizens of a free and

democratic nation? Are we going to sit back idly and except

this treatment by those entrusted to present "the facts"?

How would we know the facts if we cannot examine the facts

and weigh them for ourselves? If the facts are occult or

hidden, what does this say about what we have become during

this tragic scenario, War On Terror?

Journalists, writers, artists, etc., need to challenge

and change the status quo of the new censorship in

publication today. The truth, rather than being

unpalatable must become something to savour, and to

cherish. We need the truth today, more than ever,

the truth of journalistic integrity and reporting.

The essence of our being as a nation is freedom, without freedom we

are lost as a people and a nation.

Jane Jones Canada






Sat Aug 16, 2008 6:56 pm


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