Part of a series on |
Censorship by country |
---|
![]() |
Countries |
See also |
Censorship in Nepal consists of suppression on the expression of political opinion, religious aspect, and obscenity. The Constitution of Nepal guarantees the fundamental rights of citizens, including the freedom of expression. The right to freedom of expression includes the freedom of opinion and thought no matter what a source is. As the Constitution has been developed to push forward democracy, inconsistencies of the Constitution reform create different meanings of prohibiting censorship. The 2004, 2009, and 2015 Constitution are infamous with the restrictions of the rights which are obscure and open for misinterpretation compared to the Constitution announced in 1990. [1]
The Constitution of Nepal guarantees the freedom of expression in media; media should not be subject to direct censorship. In 2012, International Mission acknowledges that the progressive media policy in Nepal to follow the constitution is necessary, as the Ministry of Information and Communications (Nepal) has published a draft Media Policy on its website. [2] The media, however, were still limited only in capital, and it was hard to find the access outside the capital. Moreover, the government approved the Online Media Directives 2015 without any hesitation, while it provides censorship or shut-down online media within their contents, which denies the Constitution. [3] As a result, the government-owned media disseminate information to public and causes the disbelief in mass media. [4]
According to the Article 115 of the 1990 Constitution, any form of censorship was outlawed, and a free press was strongly guaranteed with announcement of parliamentary democracy. [5] Unfortunately, press media was heavily censored in 2001 and 2002 by the king Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, unlike he promised. The king implemented Clause 1 of Article 115 of the 1990 constitution to suspend the guaranteed freedom of thought and expression that banned censorship. [6] As a result, in 2002, hundreds or maybe even thousands of journalists who indicated their political opinions on the media were arrested, beaten, or detained, and some of them were killed to fight for freedom of expression guaranteed in the constitution. [7]
In 2006, massive protests occurred to force the king to realize parliamentary democracy, and this resulted in returning some of fundamental press freedom. Until now, the government has not solved instability of censorship of media and creates norms and fragile democratic structures. The Nepal Press Council and the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) have a code of conduct, but it lacks effective systems and mechanisms, and it needs more support from media stakeholders. [8]
The government controls the Internet in Nepal. The international internet connections were cut off by the government due to the martial law declared by the King in 2005. [9] Self censorship can be forced on internet content by intimidation as happened in the case of a satirical folk song Lutna Sake Lut, which was taken down from YouTube by the author amid threats to his person. [10] [11]
On Nov 13th, 2023, authority announced TikTok ban in Nepal for its "disruption of the social harmony". [12] [13]
The Film Censor Board was established in 1951 to work as a machinery of state control. [14] It mainly controls sex, violence, and politics in film and commands to cut off the scenes harmful to the society and the state. It also discredits the certification of prohibited movies if the whole cinema is assumed to be inappropriate for the state and society. For those of sexual scenes in movies are usually removed in chunks, and this censorship often causes low cinematic values with clumsiness and lacks completeness of movies. [15]
Any forms of publications that contain political thoughts or opinions are censored by the government. Police directly suppress Nepalese journalists and make them self-censored when journalists criticize politicians or politics on the newspapers. For example, because a journalist wrote an article about Nepalese politician on the newspapers, police gathered all the newspapers and burned all of them in front of journalists. [16] Moreover, the government was going to arrest journalists who made the publications of Political cartoon that depicted the constitutional monarchy as a dead animal to indicate the Press Act as completely inconsistent and violating the freedom of expression of media guaranteed in the constitution. [17]
Nepal had an official religion as Hinduism until the government declared democracy of state in 2006. [18] After that, the constitution has prohibited any acts leading to conversions from one religion to another. Nevertheless, the government controls the religious expression or defamation, especially when it publicly dissents Hinduism or does not comply rules of it. For instance, in 2010, the song of Komal Oli was banned from Nepal Television, because it was against Hindu sentiments. [19] Also, in 2012, paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses Manish Harijan depicted in super hero costumes and innocuously displayed in the Siddhartha Art Gallery were considered as offensive to Hinduism, and the police shut down the gallery. [20]
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help){{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)China censors both the publishing and viewing of online material. Many controversial events are censored from news coverage, preventing many Chinese citizens from knowing about the actions of their government, and severely restricting freedom of the press. China's censorship includes the complete blockage of various websites, apps, video games, inspiring the policy's nickname, the Great Firewall of China, which blocks websites. Methods used to block websites and pages include DNS spoofing, blocking access to IP addresses, analyzing and filtering URLs, packet inspection, and resetting connections.
Censorship in South Korea is implemented by various laws that were included in the constitution as well as acts passed by the National Assembly over the decades since 1948. These include the National Security Act, whereby the government may limit the expression of ideas that it perceives "praise or incite the activities of anti-state individuals or groups". Censorship was particularly severe during the country's authoritarian era, with freedom of expression being non-existent, which lasted from 1948 to 1993.
The Nepalese democracy movement was the combination of a series of political initiatives and movements from the 20th century to 2008 that advocated the establishment of representative democracy, a multi-party political system and the abolition of monarchy in Nepal. It has seen three major movements, the Revolution of 1951, Jana Andolan and Loktantra Andolan which ultimately abolished the Shah monarchy, transitioned Nepal towards a republic and reintroduced multi-party bicameral democracy.
The Pakistani Constitution limits Censorship in Pakistan, but allows "reasonable restrictions in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan or public order or morality". Press freedom in Pakistan is limited by official censorship that restricts critical reporting and by the high level of violence against journalists. The armed forces, the judiciary, and religion are topics that frequently attract the government's attention.
Censorship in India has taken various forms throughout its history. Although de jure the Constitution of India guarantees freedom of expression, de facto there are various restrictions on content, with an official view towards "maintaining communal and religious harmony", given the history of communal tension in the nation. According to the Information Technology Rules 2011, objectionable content includes anything that "threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order".
Censorship in Bhutan refers to the way in which the Government of Bhutan controls information within its borders. There are no laws that either guarantee citizens' right to information or explicitly structure a censorship scheme. However, censorship in Bhutan is still conducted by restrictions on the ownership of media outlets, licensing of journalists, and the blocking of websites.
Censorship in Thailand involves the strict control of political news under successive governments, including by harassment and manipulation.
Germany has taken many forms throughout the history of censorship in the country. Various regimes have restricted the press, cinema, literature, and other entertainment venues. In contemporary Germany, the Grundgesetz generally guarantees freedom of press, speech, and opinion.
The Federal Republic of Germany guarantees freedom of speech, expression, and opinion to its citizens as per Article 5 of the constitution. Despite this, censorship of various materials has taken place since the Allied occupation after World War II and continues to take place in Germany in various forms due to a limiting provision in Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the constitution. In 2014 the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index ranked Germany as 14th in the world in terms of press freedom. During the Allied occupation of Germany, the media was controlled by the occupying forces. The policy rationales differed among the occupying powers, but there was resentment in literary and journalistic circles in many parts of the country. Undesired publishing efforts were unilaterally blocked by the occupying forces.
Censorship in Myanmar results from government policies in controlling and regulating certain information, particularly on religious, ethnic, political, and moral grounds.
Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey.
Censorship in Japan has taken many forms throughout the history of the country. While Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan guarantees freedom of expression and prohibits formal censorship, effective censorship of obscene content does exist and is justified by the Article 175 of the Criminal Code of Japan. Historically, the law has been interpreted in different ways—recently it has been interpreted to mean that all pornography must be at least partly censored, and a few arrests have been made based on this law.
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions, and other controlling bodies.
Human rights in Zambia are addressed in Zambia's constitution. However, the Zambia 2012 Human Rights Report of the United States Department of State noted that in general, the government's human rights record remained poor. The 2021 version of this report noted improvements in many areas.
Mass media regulations are a form of media policy with rules enforced by the jurisdiction of law. Guidelines for media use differ across the world. This regulation, via law, rules or procedures, can have various goals, for example intervention to protect a stated "public interest", or encouraging competition and an effective media market, or establishing common technical standards.
In Nigeria, the freedom of expression is protected by section 39 (1) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria constitution. Despite this constitutional protection, the Nigerian media was controlled by the government throughout much of its history, with some even to this day. By 2020, however, over 100 newspapers in Nigeria were independent. Furthermore, there was a brief moment from 1979 to 1983 when the government of the Second Nigerian Republic handed over the task of censorship to the military. Nigerian censors typically target certain kinds of idea, such as ethnic discussion, political opposition, and morality incorrectness.
Censorship in Vietnam is pervasive and is implemented by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in relation to all kinds of media – the press, literature, works of art, music, television and the Internet. The government censors content for mainly political reasons, such as curtailing political opposition, and censoring events unfavorable to the party. In its 2021 Press Freedom Index, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Vietnam as "very serious" at 174 out of 180 countries, one of the lowest in the world and the worst ranking on their five-point scale. Similarly, Freedom House's 2021 Freedom on the Net report classifies Vietnam as "not free" in relation to the Internet, with significant obstacles to access, limits on content and significant violations of user rights.
The freedom of the press in Spain, a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy, is guaranteed in section 20 of its constitution written in 1978, after the 1975 end of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. Spain was ranked at 29th place in the World Press Freedom Index in 2017.
This list of Internet censorship and surveillance in Africa provides information on the types and levels of Internet censorship and surveillance that is occurring in countries in Africa.
Since the end of the Rwandan Civil War, many forms of censorship have been implemented in Rwanda.