Hi, my name is Cyndi, and today I am going to be providing some context to Susan Sontag’s work on “Regarding the Pain of Others”. As a nation, we are privileged. We do not see a war in our streets like the countries across the oceans must-see. No wounded or dead bodies at our feet, no ruins, no one screaming for help, no bombings, no tanks in our fields, no foreign military attempting to invade our states, and so on. American journalists decide on what to show us over the years when it has come to the wars that we are involved in. Of course, our government has control over some photojournalism to muzzled what they disagree with.

First, I would like to explain what censorship is according to the author, Elizabeth R. Purdy, censorship occurs when individuals or groups try to prevent others from saying, printing, or depicting words and images. Censors seek to limit freedom of thought and expression by restricting spoken words, printed matter, symbolic messages, freedom of association, books, art, music, movies, television programs, and Internet sites. When the government engages in censorship, the First Amendment freedoms are implicated.

The document, Media censorship: Freedom versus responsibility, by Irum Saeed Abbasi and Laila Al-Sharqi, prints A common ground for censorship is the maintenance of an orderly state, whereas, the underlying motive is to keep the public ignorant of the information that can potentially threaten authorities. For example, the author, Jasmine Alinder, of the book, Underexposed: The Controversial Censorship of Photographs of US War Dead, the armed forces first censored photographs of the United States war dead during World War I, Espionage Act of 1917. “The Act was later amended to include any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language concerning the United States government” (Abbasi & Al-Sharqi, 2015).  Abbasi & Al-Sharqi go on to mention that soldiers’ letters were censored during World War II (1939-1945). The government erased any information that potentially could be used by the enemy. This included symbols of hugs and kisses (XOXO) that were eliminated because of possible spy codes.

Alinder goes on to explain, the post-Vietnam era brought a significantly high level of censorship, which threatened to disembowel press autonomy (one of the most valuable democratic checks against government and military abuses of power). Attempts to regulator the fabrication and publication of photographs of US war dead expose the request of the government and military to express and generate the public image of war.

Since World War I the government has invaded our rights of the First Amendment to view what journalists have witnessed on the battlefields and other locations. It is not just journalists who are affected. The soldiers sending home letters explaining the horrors of the war were censored. We may have the First Amendment but the government controls it and what they want us to see.

Works Cited

Abbasi, I. S., & Al-Sharqi, L. (2015, July 29). Review Media censorship: Freedom versus responsibility. doi:10.5897/JLCR2015.0207

Alinder, J. (2012). Underexposed: The Controversial Censorship of Photographs of US War Dead. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283542_8

Purdy, E. R. (n.d.). Censorship. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from THE FIRST AMENDMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA: https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/896/censorship