Censorship

From The Independent:

In another related article, in conjunction with the announcement of special hardback editions of Banned Books by The Independent, Censorship: Still a burning issue Boyd Tonkin asks if the 'thought police will ever learn. Sorry, no sign of it in this country. The good news is that everybody else is in the same boat. The bad new is that everybody else is in the same boat. Earlier his week Amir Muhammad's Apa Khabar Orang Kampong was 'banned', Amir's second movie to suffer that fate. In a telephone conversation, he was not sure if he was looking forward to a hatrick.

Tonkin quotes Bernard Shaw: ' ... assassination is the ultimate form of censorship.' Alexander Litvinenko found out how true that was, as did Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink, and author/journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was shot in the lift of her Moscow apartment. And everyone knows the Orhan Pamuk story.

'Censorship is as old as civilisation itself - and the drive to suppress as strong today as ever.' In the case of Amir's movie, what is being suppressed? The opinions expressed by people interviewed by him? That there are such people as Muslim Communists - no matter how bizarre that sounds? Is the 'official' version of our history really that fragile? Was the decision to ban the movie taken even before it was viewed? After all, two cops from the Brickfields Police Station did cover Amir's talk on the making of AKOK at Silverfish Books some in October 2006. (They were polite, they asked permission.)

Chin Peng has been banned from entering the country. The ban still stands. He is probably the most banned person in the country. He is so banned that uttering his name was almost a crime for a very long time. But the English edition of his book sold 7000 copies, almost a Malaysian record, outsold perhaps only by Shanon Ahmad's Shit. I don't know how the Chinese edition did. Would that many people have watched Amir's movie? Sorry, you lose again.

Back to the article in The Independent: There are some wonderful quotes there, which you use on your blogs to impress your friends, and try and influence people. Also see a list of books that have offended someone in power or other in the past.

Full report: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2294384.ece