A media blackout is the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be self-imposed or voluntary or enforced by the government or state.
In countries with strong freedom of speech laws and traditions, media blackouts enforced by a government or military are generally rare and highly controversial, especially in peacetime. In those countries, there is sometimes support for media blackouts during armed conflict, but, that is generally limited and voluntary, rather than mandated by force. For example, the United Kingdom's D-Notice system—established during World War II and operating through the 1990s—allowed the executive authorities to media blackouts on certain topics on voluntary basis. In many cases, some media outlets complied while others did not, as it was voluntary.
In countries with centralized, authoritarian governments, media blackouts are commonplace, often enshrined by law, directive, or decree or by the implied threat of harm should media criticize the government. For example, media in the Soviet Union mostly cooperated voluntarily with government media blackouts on a wide variety of issues. However, media less sympathetic to the government were discouraged from violating the blackouts out of fear of arrest, prosecution, or execution.
Some examples of media blackout include the media bans of southern Japan during the droppings of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, [1] and the lack of independent media correspondence from Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. [2]
During World War II, the US Office of Censorship sent messages to newspapers and radio stations, which were acted on by recipients, asking them not to report any sightings or explosions of fire balloons, so the Japanese would have no information on the balloons' effectiveness when planning future actions. As a result, the Japanese learned the fate of only one of their bombs, which landed in Wyoming, but failed to explode. The Japanese stopped all launches after less than six months. The press blackout in the U.S. was lifted after the first deaths from fire balloons, to ensure that the public was warned, though public knowledge of the threat could have possibly prevented the deaths. [3] News of the loss of over 4,000 lives when UK ship RMS Lancastria was sunk during the war was voluntarily suppressed to prevent it affecting civilian morale, but was published after it became known overseas.
During World War II, the Japanese Imperial government had many media blackout laws, one of which being Article 27 of the "Newspaper Law" requiring authorization to publish war-related content whatsoever. [4] [5] After the Japanese surrender to Allied Forces, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers had control over Japanese media for about seven years, under the formation of the Civil Censorship Detachment. [6] The CCD eventually banned a total of 31 topics from all forms of media.[ citation needed ]
During the Arab Spring, on January 27, 2011, the Egyptian government ordered a complete shutdown of the Internet amid nationwide protests demanding the resignation of then-President Hosni Mubarak. [7] The blackout followed reports of blocked access to social media platforms like Twitter. [8] This was an attempt to control the flow of information and suppress coordination among protestors. Despite these efforts, the protests intensified, ultimately leading to Mubarak’s resignation on February 11, 2011. [8] [9]
A related series of events occurred shortly after the 2011 Egyptian media blackout in nearby Libya under the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. In a similar effort to control growing public protests, the government ordered the shutdown of YouTube on Febraury 17, 2011. [10] The following day, it ordered a curfew on internet access, shutting down the internet nationally during the nighttime hours. [11]
Since the Arab Spring, there has been a marked increase in achieving media blackouts by blocking internet access as the 2020s saw a significant shift away from traditional media to internet-based streaming and social media platforms. In fact, in some parts of the world, these sort of blackouts are now seen as commonplace. [12]
As part of sanctions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian publicly owned global medias RT and Russian government-owned media Sputnik have been banned from broadcasting and distribution within the EU. [13] Posts on the media's Twitter account are also no longer viewable.
Digital Services Act (DSA) Using concepts such as "countering disinformation" and "responding to crisis situations," there is concern that the European Commission will be able to invoke its "strong powers" to tighten regulations on social networking sites, search engines, etc. [14] In fact, in the EU, Russian media outlets were restricted from reporting in the EU on the occasion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
A media blackout was used during the 2005 New Yorxk City transit strike to allow for more effective contract negotiation between the two sides of the dispute. [15]
In Nassau County, New York, on 4 July 1956, a 32-day-old baby named Peter Weinberger was kidnapped and held for $2,000 ransom; the kidnapper promised to return Weinberger "safe and happy" if his demand was met. [16] Police arranged for the kidnapper to retrieve the money at a corner near Weinberger's home and requested a media blackout to reduce the risk of the kidnapper harming Peter before the exchange. The New York Daily News reported on the kidnapping anyway, drawing heavy press attention to Weinberger's house [16] [17] and scaring the kidnapper out of retrieving the ransom money. The kidnapper then abandoned Weinberger in some heavy brush off a highway exit. Weinberger was found dead a month later, having died of infant exposure. [18] [19]
The 2008 abduction of Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung was given a media blackout to assure her safe return. All media sources obliged making the Canadian public unaware of the fate of Fung. [20]
In 2008, the fact that Prince Harry, then third in line to the British throne, was serving on active duty in Afghanistan was subject to a blackout in the British media for his own safety. He was brought home early after the blackout was broken by foreign media. [21]
In 2009, New York Times journalist David Rohde was released from captivity after having been kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan for seven months. Many were surprised to hear about his return, as they had not heard about his kidnapping. The New York Times worked solicited voluntary ooperation from the larger media industry to keep the kidnapping low-profile, both to increase Rohdes' chances of survival but also to descalate tensions that often come with hostiage-taking.
In association football, a press or media blackout is also referred to as a silenzio stampa (literally press silence) from the corresponding Italian phrase. It specifically refers to when a football club or national team and the players refuse to give interviews or in any other way cooperate with the press, often during important tournaments, or when the club feels that the media does not depict the club and their activities in an objective way. The phrase silenzio stampa was born during the 1982 FIFA World Cup, when the Italian team created a news blackout due to rumors and untrue[ citation needed ] stories circulating in the press. [22] [23]
Telecommunications in the Democratic Republic of the Congo include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Mass media in Libya describes the overall environment for the radio, television, telephone, Internet, and newspaper markets in Libya.
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
Muhammad Hussein Tantawi Soliman was an Egyptian field marshal and politician. He was the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces and, as chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, was the de facto head of state from the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011 until the inauguration of Mohamed Morsi as president of Egypt on 30 June 2012.
In Iran, censorship was ranked among the world's most extreme in 2024. Reporters Without Borders ranked Iran 176 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, which ranks countries from 1 to 180 based on the level of freedom of the press. Reporters Without Borders described Iran as “one of the world’s five biggest prisons for media personnel" in the 40 years since the revolution. In the Freedom House Index, Iran scored low on political rights and civil liberties and has been classified as 'not free.'
Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains but exceptionally may extend to all Internet resources located outside the jurisdiction of the censoring state. Internet censorship may also put restrictions on what information can be made internet accessible. Organizations providing internet access – such as schools and libraries – may choose to preclude access to material that they consider undesirable, offensive, age-inappropriate or even illegal, and regard this as ethical behavior rather than censorship. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship of material they publish, for moral, religious, or business reasons, to conform to societal norms, political views, due to intimidation, or out of fear of legal or other consequences.
The Internet is accessible to the majority of the population in Egypt, whether via smartphones, internet cafes, or home connections. Broadband Internet access via VDSL is widely available.
An Internet kill switch is a countermeasure concept of activating a single shut off mechanism for all Internet traffic.
The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution, began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against increasing police brutality during the last few years of Hosni Mubarak's presidency. It consisted of demonstrations, marches, occupations of plazas, non-violent civil resistance, acts of civil disobedience and strikes. Millions of protesters from a range of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Violent clashes between security forces and protesters resulted in at least 846 people killed and over 6,000 injured. Protesters retaliated by burning over 90 police stations across the country.
Censorship of Twitter refers to Internet censorship by governments that block access to Twitter. Twitter censorship also includes governmental notice and take down requests to Twitter, which it enforces in accordance with its Terms of Service when a government or authority submits a valid removal request to Twitter indicating that specific content published on the platform is illegal in their jurisdiction.
The Arab Spring or the First Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām!.
An Internet outage or Internet blackout or Internet shutdown is the complete or partial failure of the internet services. It can occur due to censorship, cyberattacks, disasters, police or security services actions or errors.
International reactions to the Egyptian revolution of 2011 refer to external responses to the events that took place in Egypt between 25 January and 10 February 2011, as well as some of the events after the collapse of the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, such as Mubarak's trial. The reactions have generally been either measured or supportive of the Egyptian people, with most governments and organisations calling for non-violent responses on both sides and peaceful moves towards reform. Whilst the protesters called for Mubarak to step down immediately, most foreign governments stopped short of this demand, at least during the early phases of the protests, due to realpolitik concerns about the consequences of a power vacuum on Egyptian stability in particular and to the wider Middle East as a whole. Some Middle Eastern leaders expressed support for Mubarak. Many governments issued travel advisories and evacuated foreign citizens from the country.
There have been numerous domestic responses to the Egyptian revolution of 2011. Opposition parties, activists and religious bodies have been staunchly demanding Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, with the exception of fearful Christian authorities, who called for staying away from the protests. The government has made ongoing attempts at media censorship, including briefly shutting down nearly all Internet traffic.
Free speech in the media during the Libyan civil war describes the ability of domestic and international media to report news inside Libya free from interference and censorship during the civil war.
The level of Internet censorship in the Arab Spring was escalated. Lack of Internet freedom was a tactic employed by authorities to quell protests. Rulers and governments across the Arab world utilized the law, technology, and violence to control what was being posted on and disseminated through the Internet. In Egypt, Libya, and Syria, the populations witnessed full Internet shutdowns as their respective governments attempted to quell protests. In Tunisia, the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali hacked into and stole passwords from citizens' Facebook accounts. In Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, bloggers and "netizens" were arrested and some are alleged to have been killed. The developments since the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2010 have raised the issue of Internet access as a human right and have revealed the type of power certain authoritarian governments retain over the people and the Internet.
The following chronological summary of major events took place during the 2011 Egyptian revolution right up to Hosni Mubarak's resignation as the fourth President of Egypt on 11 February 2011.
On 26 February 2013, a hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 out of the 21 people on board. A fire developed in the basket due to a leak in the balloon's gas fuel system, causing the balloon to deflate mid-air and crash to the ground.
Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.
The 2019 Internet blackout in Iran was a week-long total shutdown of the Internet in Iran. It was ordered by the Supreme National Security Council and imposed by the Ministry of ICT. The blackout was one of the Iranian government's efforts to suppress the 2019–2020 protests. During the blackout, Iranian citizens could only access the National Information Network. Mohammad-Javad Jahromi was sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury because of his role in Internet censorship in Iran.
Similar to the war frenzy whipped up by the newspaper dailies during the Manchurian Incident (1931–32), the escalation of war in China in 1937 presented another opportunity to capitalize on sensational stories from the front—bringing in readers, boosting circulation, and showcasing the media's sense of patriotic duty. Yet drastic censorship was quickly enacted by the government. Article 27 of the Newspaper Law was put into effect, requiring government clearance to publish war related news. While other censorship policies carefully honed how the media should present the fighting and Japanese overseas in a positive and patriotic light to enhance national unity. In particular, one Home Ministry directive to local officials specifically banned the printing of "fallacies" that could "confuse the hearts of people and induce social unrest."
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