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self-censorship

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of censoring one's own work or what one says without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority, often for fear of sanctions.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Prominent newspapers such as Reforma and La Jornada chose not to sign the agreement, and some media figures such as columnist and author Guadalupe Loaeza say they won't be bound by what she calls "self-censorship."

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • Prominent newspapers such as Reforma and La Jornada chose not to sign the agreement, and some media figures such as columnist and author Guadalupe Loaeza say they won't be bound by what she calls "self-censorship."

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • That was Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004-9; that was what they call in the US "responsibility" or "restraint", or what we might call self-censorship or cronyism.

    Privacy decisions can't just be left to judges and politicians 2011

  • In 1930 the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, better known as the Hays Office after its chairman, Will Hays, issued a code of self-censorship for the industry.

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • For others, according to Schivelbusch, “Mere knowledge of the consequences of noncompliance with the often unwritten rules sufficed to encourage most of them to toe the line, and enforce the most effective and invisible form of control—self-censorship.”

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • The fear of suffering a similar fate is a powerful incentive for self-censorship, for training a naturally inquisitive mind to acquire ignorance.

    The Fall of Mexico 2009

  • BBC journalists like Chris Morris do not report full truth on Kashmir engaging in self-censorship, while his junior staffers from India Business Report behave like Indian propagandists, glossing over everything.

    Press freedom: Retreat from Moscow | Editorial 2011

  • The press remains, as it has been for some time, under pressure from the government and its organized-labor allies to engage in self-censorship.

    Kirchner Copies Peron's Model Mary Anastasia O'Grady 2011

  • Certainly, said Stonesifer, adding that the consultations with many stakeholders, such as funders, scholars and politicians, were not an opening to self-censorship.

    Smithsonian regents support secretary's censorship decision Jacqueline Trescott 2011

  • The reader who carefully peruses that bafflegab will observe that the only debate that the ECRI desires to encourage is one among journalists over how much self-censorship they should practice.

    European Union 2009

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  • "Rushdie and the pious pundits think otherwise because they don’t quite understand what censorship is. Or, rather, they conflate the colloquial sense of the word with the sense it has in philosophical and legal contexts. In the colloquial sense, censorship occurs whenever we don’t say or write something because we fear adverse consequences, or because we feel that what we would like to say is inappropriate in the circumstances, or because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. (This is often called self-censorship. I call it civilized behavior.)...

    But censorship is not the proper name; a better one would be judgment. We go through life adjusting our behavior to the protocols and imperatives of different situations, and often the adjustments involve deciding to refrain from saying something. It’s a calculation, a judgment call. It might be wise or unwise, prudent or overly cautious, but it has nothing to with freedom of expression."

    The New York Times, Crying Censorship, by Stanley Fish, August 24, 2008

    August 25, 2008