Points of View: Censorship

by Christian Wolmar

This series aims to help teenagers make up their own minds on some of the most controversial issues facing people around the world today. The arguments on all sides of each issue are illustrated using quotations taken from a variety of different sources. The readers are guided through the various arguments by a running narrative and the text is supplemented by information boxes and questions. The books in this series will provide useful resource material for current affairs, history, politics and social studies courses. This book uses source material from around the world to examine the various ways different societies restrict access to information. Censorship is examined through the experiences and opinions of different groups around the world, from black South-Africans to homosexuals in the United Kingdom. As well as addressing the more obvious forms of censorship - obscenity laws, film and TV controls and political censorship - the book looks at other, more insidious ways of controlling information. The author discusses the role of media moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell, and the function of libel laws that can restrict access to legal action to those who can afford it.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1990

About the author

Christian Wolmar is a journalist, focusing on the history and politics of railways.