Censorship in communist regime country case of poland
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The censorship – key element of mass communication system in totalitarian countries (Poland’s case) Magdalena Mateja (Ph.D.) Department of Journalism and Social Communication, Faculty of Political Sciences and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland (UMK)
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Transcript of Censorship in communist regime country case of poland
The censorship – key element of mass communication system
in totalitarian countries (Poland’s case)
Magdalena Mateja (Ph.D.)Department of Journalism and Social Communication, Faculty of Political Sciences and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland (UMK)
Nowadays it is difficult to find the material proofs of communist censors’ activity…
The censor’s notebook
unreadable
comment on fire in the churchcomment on weekly
magazine cartoon’s content (disapproval)
The role and place of the censorship agency in communication system in Poland (1946-1990)
Institutional sender I – communist party and government (public, apparent)
↓Institutional sender II – agency for censorship, censors
(secret, classified) ↓
Institutional sender III – editorial office (public, apparent) ↓
Direct sender – journalist (public, apparent) ↓
Public opinion spokesperson (public, apparent) ↓
Receiver (=reader)
Source: A. M. Lewicki, P. Nowak, Manipulacja w mediach, [in:] Język w mediach masowych, J. Bralczyk, M. Mosiołek-Kłosińska (ed.), Warszawa 2000, s. 37.
Censorship law
Special edict in 1946 which established censorship in communist Poland.
Gdansk agreement between „Solidarity” and the communist authorities (1981).
Preventive censorship became visible due to special mark (=4 hyphens in brakets).
Preventive censorship became visible due to special mark (=4 hyphens in brakets).
censor’s approval
The censor who escaped to Sweden with copy od censors’ „black book”
Tomasz StrzyżewskiTomasz Strzyżewski
Instructions for censors (examples)
Forbidden topics: salaries, social policy, export of meat to the USSR.
You should try to eliminate the rehabilitation of democratic Poland (1918-1939) and leaders of the interwar period.
It is essential to eliminate any aggregate data concerning the number of traffic accidents, fires, drownings, as well as tone down too alarmist publications on this topic.
Do not allow any polemics with materials published in "Tribune of the People" and "New Road” (=communists’ government press).
Instructions for censors (examples)
Eliminate information about food poisonings and epidemics such as influenza.
The works of X, Y, Z should not be published, but you can allow the polemics with these people.
The ban on publishing data on total consumption of coffee in Poland.
Do not allow figures showing the rise of alcoholism in the whole country to be published in the mass media.
Do not allow any information about the bribing case in Sandomierz (=Polish town).
What censors told about the system, for which they worked?
You should supplement the information of a general nature with words: sometimes, some, not always. For example, the message:„Police officers steal" should be replaced with: "Some police officers steal”. (Do you remember Orwell’s „1984”?)
By manipulating text, you could even turn it against the intentions of the author.
The reader was without a trace of censorship activities "on the text."
We knew that the writers and journalists „smuggled” political allusions - it was the finesse, it made me satisfaction ...
(quotations from „Great Escape of Censor”, documentary film of Grzegorz Braun)
Aesopian language (implicit, indirect communication)
The aesopian language as kind of communication „technique” was present in: Literature: Andrzejewski’s novels, Mrożek’s short stories, New Wave poetry, Herbert’s poetry;Journalism and reportage: Kapuściński’s „The Emperor”, Kisielewski’s columns;Films and TV series;Lyrics in rock music;Cabaret and satirical (e.g. puppet) shows on TV;Many others...
Allusion (e.g. series of associations) Periphrasis Metaphor Pars pro toto Irony Parabolic narratives Purnonsens Styling (e.g. parody)
Aesopian language: means of expression
„The Older Gentlemen Cabaret” and its nonverbal allusions to the system
Indirect message of: cylinders, tails, flowers in the buttonhole, old-fashioned manners?
Meaning: we are not from communist Poland, we belong to interwar period Poland, we don’t look like working class representatives, we won’t let to be unified…
1958-1966, Polish public TV
Do we need a freedom of speech?
Jerzy Urban, former spokesman of comunist government: "I think the jokes are threatened by freedom of speech. In the communist era you said a sentence with a Russian accent and the audience was screaming with laughter, or used facial expressions and that was fun."
