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New Media, New Freedoms, New Threats

This article argues that new media often get involved in struggles for new freedoms. The nascent book was involved in the struggle for religious freedom, the public press was engaged in the struggle for political freedom and today the Internet is, in turn, used as an instrument for the advocacy and promotion of new liberties: the freedoms of intimacy. These freedoms are related to needs and preferences derived from identities and lifestyles of communities based on gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation and sexual orientation. As new media help people to extend the frontiers of freedom, public authorities have often attempted to impose controls over them. This article identifies four traditional means of censorship (legal, administrative, violent and economic), and shows that the digital era has brought with it new means of curbing freedom of speech: technology. Finally, this article argues that since the book-burning scenes of the Inquisition, censorship has steadily moved away from demonstrative and restorative justice. The means to curb freedom of speech have become both more efficient and less visible.

Key Words: censorship • democracy • digitization • filtering technology • free speech • freedoms of intimacy • Internet

International Communication Gazette, Vol. 62, No. 1, 19-29 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/0016549200062001002


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