Throughout the history of mankind, there have been times and places in which censorship of fiction thrived and others in which it was next to non-existent. This is the result of the socio-cultural context, itself the consequence of historical events and processes. Censorship is not only a form of expression control, but of thought control as well. The censorship of ideas, texts and depictions considered dangerous to the ruling class is the most classic reason for censorship, along with forms of expression that go against established dogma (see Galileo, 1633) such as religion. For instance, Socrates was executed on charges that he corrupted the youth and that he did not acknowledge the gods that the city did but other new divinities of his own. His own pupil Plato supported in his work (Republic) that any art that could corrupt the morality of the nation should be censored. In 440 BC a law was introduced that would impeach or exile “those who denied the Gods or taught about celestial phenomena”.
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Censorship: A Socio-Cultural Analysis
March 29th, 2010 by Ikigami and AzariusWhy We Moderate Comments
February 24th, 2010 by AzariusAlong with the increasing amount of comments we receive, we also get an ever increasing number of comments that are never published on the site and are rather promptly deleted. In other words, Yes to Freedom does “censor” certain comments from an internal point of view. As we are an organisation that claims to fight for absolute freedom of speech, explaining the reasons behind such moderation is becoming pressing.
Fictional Freedom: a Legal Perspective, Part 1
February 20th, 2010 by AzariusA newly active member of Yes to Freedom and law student, Immigrant88 wrote with the collaboration of myself and other members of the organisation a lengthy article explaining from a legal perspective the flaws of laws censoring “prurient fiction”. More precisely, it uses Professor Lon L. Fuller’s conception of natural law as basis of its arguments.
You can view it below, as well as download it here.
Website’s Database Wrecked by Online Attack
January 25th, 2010 by AzariusThis weekend, http://yestofreedom.org was hit by an attack of unprecedented scale, originating from an unknown source. We are not in the position to blame anyone or any organisation, but would like to remind users that someone, whether intentionally or not, is breaking the law to stop us.
Misunderstanding and Moral Panic: A True Story
January 10th, 2010 by AzariusVery human is the fear of what is not understood. Those who openly engage in unconventional conduct are bound to fight for mere tolerance – regardless of the impact, or absence thereof, of said behaviour.
The current climate of utter misunderstanding, and incidentally of moral panic, that surrounds modern Japanese visual culture is illustrated in outstanding detail in the following story that has been sent to Yes to Freedom by email. As the writer has expressed his desire to remain anonymous, we will refer to him as “John Smith”. The text was furthermore edited with the writer’s permission to improve legibility.
MangaGamer: “Not Censoring our Games Was Unrelated to Free Speech”
January 7th, 2010 by Azarius and the_pragmatistWe recently decided to send a letter of support to the company MangaGamer, in response to their decision to not censor potentially “objectionable” content in upcoming eroge releases. We also made use of this email to ask for their moral support in our campaign for free speech. Below is the full text of the email we sent to info[at]manga-corp.com.
Freedom-tan
December 18th, 2009 by AzariusAs both of Yes To Freedom’s current campaigns are related to Japanese subculture, and more precisely anime and manga, we have deemed relevant to create, in a line of thought similar to Wikipedia‘s Wikipe-tan, our own “-tan” anime-styled mascot.
We have named said character Freedom-tan – or, in Japanese, Jiyū-tan (自由たん) - as a clear reference to our goals and ideals. While her rather diminutive frame is somewhat meant as a reference to our campaign on lolicon art, her usual items hold a more mainstream meaning. The pen/brush is a way of defining writing as a “peaceful weapon”. The art palette, on the other hand, stands as a shield – art – against censorship and everything Yes To Freedom opposes. Finally, the feather, official logo of Yes to Freedom, symbolizes both freedom itself, through its link with bird-like features.
Think and Fight
November 28th, 2009 by ArokanWhen you want to make a change in society, you deliver the message in a way society understands: you don’t make adverts for coke in London in hindu, and you don’t plaster swastikas all over your games in Germany, instead you plaster your adverts with good looking scantily clothed models and legions of fans telling us how amazing your product is.
Logic and Censorship
September 24th, 2009 by AzariusBrowsing through the comments on a recent post at Sankaku Complex that featured Yes to Feedom, I stumbled across these words of wisdom:
Actualy [sic] by all logical means.
Equality should support hentai as hard as they could.But they don’t think logicaly [sic] do they?
So now, do radical feminists think “logically”? The normal, reactionary answer of most readers of this very post would be that “such people can’t be logical”, that they “obviously are acting on the impulse of emotion”.
I beg to differ. Most women – and men – that militate among organisations such as Equality Now, the very kind Yes to Freedom is fighting against, are in no way short of intelligence and logic. Equality Now’s past campaigns hint to this quite conclusively.
