You can't say jeepers in Brisbane.
I come across heaps of great censorship related websites and blogs each day, but I don’t post about them because they aren’t about Australian issues or because I don’t have time. 99% of the time it’s the latter. So instead of keeping them to myself, I’ve decided the best thing to do is share them with you in regular web/link/misc wrap up style posts. We’ll call it the Intergalactic Censorship Patrol.
1) Mask? What mask my love! Mark Juddery looks at 5 Memorable Moments in Comic Book Censorship History. Even Queensland gets a mention (Mark is after all Australian):
‘While American comics were winning the wrath of parents, comics on the other side of the Pacific were also being targeted for all kinds of moral depravity. It didn’t help that one of Australia’s top artists was Len Lawson. Lawson’s most famous character was the Lone Avenger, a masked vigilante of the 1870s American West. (Yes, even Aussies did westerns.) While the Lone Avenger was a good guy, his creator was slightly more disturbed. In 1954, Lawson was imprisoned for 14 years for rape. One newspaper, “exposing” this rapist as a comic book artist, described Lawson as “the artist of violent comics, which frequently depicted bosomy heroines.” Almost immediately, The Lone Avenger was banned in Queensland, followed by several other comics.’
More on Len Lawson here.
2) A Colorado teacher gets her 9th grade U.S. History students to discuss censorship in a time of war. Ben says it’s the media’s responsibility to check the power of the government, not the other way around. EmilyJ reckons the Gov has the right to censor news media.
3) The Register warns of the UK Gov’s suicide site eradication plan.
4) Duncan Riley writes about Google’s latest venture: Traning police in India on how to find and remove objectional material from Google’s sites.
5) The rumor circulating about Sarah Palin’s book banning history was debunked, but there might be more to the story. Scott Stiffler writes:
‘…Pastor, I am Gay” was the subject of a censorship campaign led by Palin’s church. Several copies of that title soon disappeared from library shelves (no culprits have ever been identified).’
6) Ignorance is the worst kind of censor according to Film Director Ken Russell.
‘Ten years ago Melvyn Bragg challenged me to conceive of a film that I thought should be banned. I came up with A Kitten for Hitler, and he said that if I ever made it I would be lynched.’
