Limited freedom

By Beate Hentschel

On July 16, 2024, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned the far-right "Compact" magazine. For the time being, the Federal Administrative Court has overruled this ban. Now the legal experts will take a close look at the question of whether the ban will stand and whether the ministry's evidence is tenable. Or are we dealing with a case of unauthorized state censorship in 21st century Germany? On the other hand, is the ban not rather an expression of a defensive democracy? Prof. Dr. Nikola Roßbach, head of the "Modern German Literature" department at the Institute of German Studies at the University of Kassel, has been dealing with the issue of censorship since documenta 14. She has now published a comprehensive handbook on the mechanisms and practices of censorship that goes far beyond literature. Publik spoke to her.

The discussion about the ban on "Compact" magazine touches on fundamental questions about freedom of the press in Germany, guaranteed by Article 5 of the Basic Law. It protects the freedom of reporting by the press and other media. Consequently, the Media Association of the Free Press (MVFP) issued a press release after the ban and "considers the ban on a press publisher by the Ministry of the Interior to be a serious infringement of the freedom of the press protected by the Basic Law".

This current example shows that the issue of censorship is highly topical - all over the world and not just in totalitarian states. Because, according to Nikola Roßbach: "We are currently experiencing a huge backlash, seeing authoritarian structures gain strength in many countries and even the emergence of dictatorial regimes. By contrast, anyone who wants to ban publications in democracies with a functioning separation of powers must weigh up very carefully between the need to protect democracy and public safety and the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press. In a constitutional state, such decisions must be made in a transparent and court-proof manner in order to maintain the balance between security and freedom. Perhaps the lawyers who now have to assess the "Compact" case - because, as expected, the Compact makers have filed an appeal against the ban with the Federal Administrative Court - will also take Nikola Roßbach's new handbook "Censorship" to prepare themselves comprehensively. We can only advise them to do so, as the topic is complex.

For the first time, interdisciplinary, transhistorical and global perspectives on censorship are comprehensively presented

The current state of research is comprehensively presented on over 600 pages. Roßbach has been able to recruit colleagues, mainly from German-speaking countries, who for the first time present an academic survey of the phenomenon of censorship and its research, providing interdisciplinary, transhistorical and global perspectives on censorship. The handbook provides researchers, students and all other interested parties with a good overview of the broad discussion on the topic of censorship in literature, oral and written media and cultural practice. According to Roßbach, there is a strong tradition of dealing with the phenomenon of censorship in German-speaking countries. She is delighted that she has been able to recruit many academics for the project. "Together, they represent the important academic trends in the study of censorship and cover a wide range of topics".

The handbook is divided into five chapters: "Conceptual foundations" of censorship and its functioning and effects form the prelude, "Actors and fields of action" outline the contexts in which censorship takes place - from politics to religion, business, art and media to the subject of law. The fact that censorship is by no means a new phenomenon is dealt with in Chapter III, which looks at epochs from antiquity to the 21st century. After "(almost) total censorship in the modern age", as the authors Sascha Feuchert and Jennifer Ehrhardt call their article on censorship in the 20th century, the last article on the 21st century by Stephen Packard is dedicated to the question of how censorship manifests itself in our digital communication. Roßbach: "Algorithms also exercise censorship - indirect, informal censorship. We don't receive all information in a value-free way, but rather filtered news or even fake news. And we can neither understand nor influence the algorithms according to which this happens".

The right to speak and therefore the right to interpret, influence and power are unequally distributed - there have been and still are disputes about this in every society. Who is allowed to speak? Who speaks and in what position? Who is heard? Who sets the tone? Who creates a public presence by expressing their opinion? These are questions that directly concern censorship practices and restriction efforts.

The anthology comprehensively deals with the historical dimensions of censorship, in which, according to Roßbach, there have always been "spurts" that have driven the topic forward. She cites the invention of writing and Gutenberg's printing press with movable type in the 15th century, a technical innovation that enabled the inexpensive reproduction of religious and political pamphlets and books. "The Reformation in particular, with the translation of the Bible into German and the many pamphlets, provoked such a surge in censorship. All of this led ecclesiastical and secular rulers to take measures against too much knowledge and too much individual thought, to intervene restrictively in the free flow of information and to control communication." Austria in the 19th century also provides an impressive example of state censorship: Prince Metternich installed an unprecedented censorship and informer apparatus (the Metternich system) there as State Chancellor in the Empire in order to maintain the royal power of European ruling houses and to suppress and combat liberal tendencies.

According to Roßbach, history shows that "communication is unthinkable without its control". The absolute pinnacle of bureaucratic-professional state censorship is, of course, the totalitarian right-wing and left-wing regimes of the modern age: "The 20th century is the age of total censorship."

Everyone controls everyone: China's 50-cent army

In a further chapter (IV.), a spatial-global perspective is therefore added to the temporal one and censorship events on the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, North America and Eastern and Western Europe are examined. Sigrun Abels, Jessica Bauer and Juri Häbler have written about the censorship mechanisms in the People's Republic of China. "As an all-encompassing totalitarian state power, the Chinese regime naturally relies on the comprehensive control of communication, suppresses voices and censors the people with the help of digital technology in an increasingly restrictive manner. For example, the Chinese state employs thousands of human censors for the internet. They are popularly known as the '50-cent army'. Officials who report unwelcome posts or comments receive money from the state in return," explains Roßbach.

Subversive, informal censorship in the age of the internet

What actually is censorship? There is formal censorship. This refers to "sanction-based communication control" that emanates from institutions. People have to fear tangible sanctions if they write or speak out against the opinion of those in power. In Germany, the experience of National Socialism and totalitarianism has led to Article 5 of the Basic Law being intended to protect us above all from state interference in our fundamental right to freedom of expression.

But in the current debate, it is informal rather than state censorship that is being discussed. It is about subversive mechanisms that create a climate in which we are supposedly no longer allowed to express our opinions freely. "I have been able to include a very good contribution by Matthias N. Lorenz on "The Cancel Culture Narrative" in the handbook on this current censorship-political discourse. Lorenz is Professor of Modern German Literature and Comparative Literature at the Leibniz University of Hanover. He describes very well how censorship is used as a polemicized fighting term - as a fighting term in the social debate about power and freedom of opinion, among others in the so-called "new-right political currents".

Apart from such censorship polemics, there is also 'real' informal censorship, even in democratic constitutional states such as Germany. Freedom of opinion is guaranteed here by the Basic Law. But, according to Roßbach: "Our basic rights are defensive rights against the state, but not against global tech companies such as Twitter/X, Meta and Google. That requires other interventions and that is a social negotiation process with considerable potential for conflict. Take hate speech, for example: should X and co. be forced by law to censor posts on their platforms? Do we want to and can we agree on standards as a society? Freedom of expression can lead to unleashed hatred, but where is the line to be drawn where intervention and deletion takes place? And when does 'overblocking' begin - the excessive deletion of content that would undermine the freedom of the internet? The first attempts to control digital content by law have been made at German and European level in recent years; they walk a delicate line between enforcing the law and "restricting freedom".

We are observing a heated discussion about censorship and freedom of expression; political opponents are feeding this into a culture of outrage that is becoming increasingly heated. Nikola Roßbach puts it like this: "Up to now, the majority opinion has generally made itself heard. But increasingly - especially through social media - smaller groups are gaining the right to speak and demand to be heard. Think of trans people or people of different ethnic backgrounds. This worries mainstream society, which sees itself called into question and then likes to talk about a _'cancel culture'." However, there are also anti-democratic voices that speak out loudly, as the case of "Compact" mentioned at the beginning shows.

Self-censorship as a mechanism of informal censorship

Self-censorship is a widespread mechanism of informal censorship that can be observed above all in totalitarian societies. "People don't dare to name and say things that they have learned and know will not be tolerated." But even in democracies, there is self-censorship, i.e. the suppression of one's own opinion through perceived or exerted external pressure - even if it is the fear of a shitstorm on social media.

Research also considers such informal, subtle forms of censorship to be problematic: They can tip over into formal state restrictions - think of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Democracies are never immune to censorship: in the USA, there is now considerable censorship again in various states, particularly with regard to literature in schools. Under pressure from the "Moms for Liberty" movement, school libraries are banning books by John Steinbeck, Toni Morrison or Khled Hosseini, Magred Atwood and Isabel Allende from schools. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung recently reported on a recent survey by the American Library Association. It shows a sharp increase in censorship attempts in the USA: in 2023, the number of books proposed for banning ("challenged") rose by 92 percent compared to 2022.

The self-appointed censors are particularly targeting texts from the LGBTQ community. Interest groups such as "Moms for Liberty" are also exerting massive influence on Republican politicians. The US magazine Newsweek quotes Tiffany Justice, co-founder of "Moms of Liberty", as saying: "We have no intention of banning any books." She continues: "Our moms are saying: write the book, publish the book, print the book, sell the book wherever you want to sell it, but don't put it in a public school library if it contains explicit sexual content." Yet the USA is one of the countries in which freedom of expression has been enshrined in fundamental rights since 1789. The Bill of Rights stipulates inalienable fundamental rights for American citizens, including in the first article the guarantee of "freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the right to petition".

Nikola Roßbach recommends the book to anyone who wants to deal with the topic of censorship in academia, studies and work or out of general interest. The interdisciplinary approach is particularly important to her, along with an international and non-Eurocentric perspective. "I am very pleased that I was able to inspire colleagues from so many disciplines and continents for this book project. In addition to the literary scholars - my own discipline - I was able to bring in authors from history, media, religion, law and even sinology. You learn a lot about the past and present of censorship all over the world. It also deals with current controversies about identity politics, populism and conspiracy theories. Our compendium is an invitation to readers to delve deeper into a topic that will occupy us for a long time to come."

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Prof. Dr. Nikola Roßbach came to the topic of censorship through an artistic project. The large sculpture "The Parthenon of Books" by Marta Minujin was created for documenta 14 on Friedrichsplatz in Kassel. Together with her colleague Prof. Dr. Florian Gassner (Vancouver, Canada), Prof. Roßbach provided scientific support. A team of students compiled lists of banned books and sorted the donated titles.

This project work resulted in "The Kassel List - A Database of Censored Books" (www.kasselerliste.com). This is the world's largest database of banned books, comprising around 125,000 items to date; it integrates various historical indices, research databases on censorship and the results of individual research. Together with Gassner, Roßbach also recently worked for the Literaturhaus München. Both were responsible for the conception and scientific support for the exhibition "Forbidden Books", which was shown there from October 28,2023 to February 4, 2024. The visualization of the topic of censorship presented a new and exciting challenge.

Censorship
Handbook for science and studies
Edited by Prof. Dr. Nikola Roßbach
Nomos, 2024, 611 pages, paperback
ISBN 978-3-8487-8588-9