Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Mrs Blatchford and I'm a citizenship teacher.

And today I'm going to be your citizenship teacher, and we're going to be looking at censorship in the media together today.

For our lesson today, you are going to need a pen or pencil, and you're going to need some paper.

I would also really suggest that you find yourself a nice quiet space to work in.

So that you're not going to be disturbed during the lesson and you can focus on the content then.

So if you need to do either as those things, grab equipment, move to a quiet space.

I just suggest you would pause the video now and then get to press play again.

Once you've gotten to the place you want to work in, and you've got your equipment that you need to hand.

we are going to focus on three key questions in our lesson today.

The first of those is the key word that we're going to be using in our lesson, which is censorship.

We're going to look at what is censorship? Our second key question is to have a look at whether or not we think that censorship is ever justified in a democracy.

And then I'll final key question for today is to look at the media in China and how that differs to the media in the UK.

The first thing we need to do in our lesson is think about what do we mean by the censorship.

So for today's lesson, it's really important, We get that key word defined that we know what we're talking about during the lesson.

So censorship is a suppression of speech, public communication, or other information on the basis that such material is considered offensive, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient.

Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions, and other controlling bodies.

And suggest at this point, you pause the video to write that definition of censorship.

Now, there are lots of issues that are raised within this definition, and there are many different levels of censorship.

So it includes the idea that censorship is even used in a democracy with a free press, because we need to protect people.

So it may be used by editors to control the message that's being given by an article for example, or to control the content that they choose to publish.

And we're going to be considering these ideas during the lesson, So hopefully you've made a note of that definition.

And remember, as we go through the lesson as well, of course you can add to that definition.

Now these are some of the reasons why information might be censored.

And as I said, include an interim democracy, even though we've got free press.

So we've got moral censorship, So this is where we remove materials, which could be viewed as being obscene or could cause offence to somebody.

Then we've got military censorship, and this is to keep military intelligence and tactics , confidential and secret from the enemy.

Then we've got political censorship, where governments might hold back information from citizens, and that might be to control them.

It might be to restrict access, or it could be to keep state secrets, things that they don't want divulged to anyone else.

Then we've got religious censorship, this is material which may be considered offensive by a certain religion so is removed.

It could actually also be in a country where one religion is the dominant religion and therefore they want to remove other materials from public view as well.

And then we've got corporate censorship, and this is done to disrupt the publishing information that might portray your business or your business partners in a negative light.

So again, what I'm going to suggest you do, is just pause the video at this point to make a note of those different types of censorship, which may occur.

Now what I'd like you to do with those five types of censorship you've just made an hour ago, is I'd like you to rank the five types with one being the most acceptable reason, in your opinion, to sensor the media in a democracy and five being the least acceptable reason in a democracy to sensor the media.

They must be able to justify your rank order as well, so what did you put at the top and why, what did you put at the bottom and why? So what I'd suggest you do now then is to pause the video and remember you're going to rank the five different types of censorship that we've just discussed with one being the most acceptable reason.

down to five, being the least acceptable reason for, and since you need it in a democracy.

Pause the video now, and when you've done your task, you can press play.

So what I've got here is my ranking of those five types of censorship.

So you can see, I hope you can read my writing for start, but you can see in my ranking, I've put military censorship at the top.

I've put this as the most acceptable reason to use censorship in a democracy as it can be about the safety of the whole population.

So we might be keeping the whole country safe by keeping our tactics or military intelligence safe from public view and censored in that respect.

In contrast at the bottom as the least acceptable reason to censor in a democracy.

I've put corporate censorship, and the reason I've put that, there is because I've said, it's used to protect the profits of private individuals.

So you're not helping the rest of society at large.

And the reason for that is just to protect those people involved in that business really.

Wonder if you've gone around the same ideas, or if you've thought in a different view, again there's no right or wrong answer, as long as you're able to justify what you've put where.

So we've got three different scenarios here, which type of censorship do you think has been described in each of those three scenarios? And again, you can pause the video here to give you a chance, just to think them through.

The first one, newspapers contacted your business to say, they're going to run a story, exposing the poor quality of the products you sell.

The Royal Navy has developed a new weapon system and in newspapers, threatening to expose the names of MI5 agents.

Spice might call those a space, James Bond type of people.

So which type of censorship do each of those describe? And as I said if you need to pause the video, just to read those through again, please do so, and then just press play even when you're ready to do so.

And here's the feedback for that task.

So hopefully you've got these in the right order So the first one here, corporate censorship.

A newspaper has contacted your business to say, they're going to run a story, about the poor quality of the product.

So they might try censor this or try to censor this so that they don't reveal about the product and damage your business reputation.

Next one here, military censorship.

The Royal Navy and the development of new weapon systems. They don't want to let other people know about that.

Then we've got political censorship.

So this one is the one about threatening to expose the names of MI5 agents.

Wouldn't be able to do their job very well, if people knew who they were, perhaps they wouldn't be able to then go undercover and find the information that we want them to.

Okay, well done.

If you've got those in the right order.

So we're looking now, should the media ever be censored in a democracy? So thinking about those different reasons, why media is sometimes censored that we've just gone through there.

Those might help us to start thinking about the times, when the media may need to be censored, even in a democracy.

So let's remind ourselves first of all about the characteristics of a democracy and the free press within democracy to get us started.

So the first starting point, the reason the importance of having a free press is also summed up in our human rights really, and the rights to having a free opinion and free expression.

So if we look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 here, it says "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

This rate includes freedom to hold it opinions, without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas to any media and regardless of frontiers".

So this clearly sets out the need to have a free press, so we got access to free information, accurate information, but also that we can express opinions and ideas at the same time.

So the characteristics of the media in a democracy, so we've looked at this in our previous lesson, but we're just going to recap on what those are.

So first of all, that it's free remember, we don't mean free as in, you don't have to pay for it.

So the newspaper, you might have to buy a physical copy, but free in that it is free to publish accurate and truthful information hold to account to write opinion pieces as well.

So it's free from interference by the government basically.

But it's transparent so we know how they operate and who owns them and that they're accountable.

So they take responsibility for their actions and that could be putting the journalist's name on it, but it could also be if they make a mistake that they're willing to put in a retraction of that information, or to apologise for a mistake that they've made.

And then the importance of a free press in a democracy is that it's a place where we can be open and share ideas.

It gives us collective knowledge and understanding, it allows communication with government representatives, that allows for peaceful social change, protects those individual rights.

Like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19.

Now also, clearly within any society, there needs to be laws or regulations that protect individuals from newspapers, prevent printing, sorry, false stories, but also restrictions from the press should be limited.

We've looked in our previous lessons at IPSO and the MUJ code of conduct, both of those are involved in self regulation in the media and cover printed media.

So let's now have a look at the role of organisation Ofcom in the regulation of media UK.

And this covers a wide range of media here.

So Ofcom the office of communications, this ensures that people are able to use communication services, including broadband, that range of companies provide quality television and radio programmes that appeal to diverse audiences, to make sure our viewers and listeners are protected for harmful or offensive material on TV, radio, and on demand.

And they make sure people are protected from unfair treatment and programmes and don't have their privacy invaded.

So sometimes you may see something on TV or hear a programme on radio, and you might find it offensive, or you think it's harmful in some way.

Every time Ofcom receives a complaint from a viewer or listener, they assess it under the Broadcasting Code, to see if it needs further investigation.

And the code really sets the standards for television and radio shows and broadcasters have to follow these rules.

You can see here, covers standards in programmes, sponsorship, product placement in television programmes and fairness and privacy.

The aim is to protect the public from harmful or offensive conduct.

And they also assess complaints under the broad casting code.

If the code is breached Ofcom normally publish a finding and explain why a broadcast is breached the code.

And these are always available on Ofcom's website.

If they breach the codes of their broadcaster, breaches the code deliberately or seriously or repeatedly or quite recklessly.

So they should have known that it was going to be a serious breach.

Then Ofcom has statutory powers, powers given to it by parliament to take sanctions, to give punishments to broadcasters.

So quite a powerful organisation, but they are yes to regulate but also to protect really.

So just some thoughts then about why the media, might have to be censored in a democracy.

And these link back to some of those types of censorship that we looked at earlier in the lesson.

So it might be to protect the integrity of a trail, because if we're publishing information about say a criminal trail in newspapers, what that might do is it might influence people who could be serving on a jury in that criminal case.

And therefore it might bias the conclusion they come to as to whether somebody is innocent or guilty.

So we want to ensure a fair trial can take place, so we need to ensure that sometimes details are kept secret, they are censored from the media, publishing them.

We might need to protect our National Security, against maybe a threat from a terrorist organisation, for example, so we need to protect our National Security.

We might want to be upholding those democratic values of course like the right to a fair trial.

We want to ensure unacceptable intrusion into people's private lives is not allowed.

Also we might censor the media in order to prevent the publication of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.

These are what we looked at in our previous lesson.

And of course there is that self-censorship as well by the media.

So using the Editors' Code of Practise, for example, or the National Union of Journalists Code of Conduct might lead a publisher to say that, some stories are not acceptable to be published or some photographs are not acceptable to be published.

So what I'd like you to do now, I'd like you to have a go at writing a paragraph and the title of your paragraph is, should the media ever be censored in a democracy? So you're going to write a paragraph to explain whether it's ever acceptable to censor the media in a democracy and your added challenge is to see if you can include all of the keywords at the bottom of the page.

There's a copy of this on the worksheet as well, so if you need to download that, do please do so good luck with that.

The words you need to try and include are democracy, trial, misinformation, freedom, security, government, values, and self censorship.

So just a reminder, then you're going to write a paragraph to explain why the media may sometimes be censored in a democracy and see if you can include all of those key words for me as well.

So pause the video when you're ready, and then you can press play when you have completed.

So this is my paragraph, so let's see how similar is and you can have a look at yours alongside this.

So I have written the freedom of the press is seen as one of the core values in a democracy.

This is because the media's role is to keep the public informed and hold those in power to account.

However, it could be said that there are times when the media should be censored.

The government might want to censor information published by the media, as it's in the interest of national security.

It could be important to sensor information published about a criminal case.

So it ensures that a fair trial can take place.

Sometimes the media might use self-censorship for example, to stop the spread of misinformation.

So in deed if yours is quite similar to that, and whether you managed to get all the keywords in there as well.

Well done if you did.

So now we're going to do a bit of a comparison, we're going to look at how the media in China differs to the media in the UK.

So, first of all, So I'll think about the government in China.

So the government in China is controlled by the Communist Party of China.

China has eight illegally recognised parties, including the China Democratic League and the China Democratic National Construction Association.

Unlike political parties in western democracies, no party in China is allowed to challenge the Communist Parties hold on power.

We therefore refer to China as a one party state.

This lack of a way for the people to choose anything that the Communist Party as the country's ruling party is one of the main reasons why most political scientists and human rights watch dogs do not consider China to be a democracy.

Now that word at the end there watchdogs, watchdog is an organisation that keeps an eye on some things.

So, if it's a human rights watchdog, it's looking out for maybe abuses of human rights around the world.

So they keep an eye on different governments to make sure that they are following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

You might cause them like Ofcom that we just talked about watchdog because they're keeping a watch on broadcast media, to make sure that they follow the code and checking against that code when there are complaints.

So how is the media controlled in China? So China is, I guess you would call a champion of censorship and information control.

China's government has core values that can really be seen as harmful to democracy and press freedom.

Despite what their constitution state, So Article 35 of it's constitution states that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of demonstration".

That's what their constitution says, but isn't always what happens in practise.

President of China is spoken about expectations to the media, to speak for the Communist Party's will align their political thinking and deeds to the party.

So far from being independent and free from interference, we can say that the media in China is much more in terms of its control under the control of the government and is censored by the government in China.

What are the consequences then, if journalists speak out in China? Well, first thing to note is that there is limited access to social media, such as Facebook and internet search engine such as Google if you're in China.

Foreign correspondents face severe restrictions when trying to report from China.

Journalists to step out of line in China face often harsh consequences.

And at the end of 2019, China had 48 journalists in prison, which is more than any other nation.

The source for that is the committee to protect journalists, which is an independent nonprofit organisation that promotes free press freedom worldwide.

And they tried to defend the right of journalists to report news safely and without fear of punishment.

So we're going to use that information now about what we know about China and what we know already about the UK over the last four lessons and today, and think about what's the difference between media control in China and that in the UK.

So we've got source here, which is around censorship in China.

So let's just read this through together, So the Chinese government has long, kept a very tight reign on both traditional and new media to avoid potential subversion of its authority.

China is run as a one party state.

There are no other political parties in China, other than the Communist Party.

What rights that do exist within the constitution or subject to interpretation by the government and the courts the government appoints.

The government's tactics often involve strict media controls using monitoring systems and firewall, closing publications or websites, holding trails and jailing distant journalists, bloggers, and activists.

Even foreign companies, such as Google have battled with the Chinese government over the access Chinese citizens have to the internet and the data companies hold about their customer's internet use.

The Chinese government also tries to restrict material that's put on the internet and the ability of their citizens to search for some information.

So what you're going to be doing is comparing the situation in China, which is described in source B here, with how the media are treated by the British government.

So what we're having the opportunity to do here is to apply our knowledge of censorship of the media in China and compare this to have the media regulated in the UK that we've learned in our previous lessons.

Just to remainder then, so the task I'm asking you to do is to compare media control in China with UK.

So you're comparing the situation in China that is described in source B with how the media are treated by the British government.

So when you've had to go that task, you can press play, and I'll give you some feedback.

So some feedback for you then.

Here's some of the things that I would expect you to have written about in that response.

So due to China, being a one party state, which has unlimited powers, it can get away with imposing strict on its media.

Whereas the British government allows freedom of the press, because if they didn't then they would be replaced.

So people would vote them out with the next election.

In China the government uses a range of methods to strictly control its media and what is published by the media.

In the UK, freedom of speech and a free press are long-standing human rights and seen as key to a healthy democracy.

In China, there is censorship of the internet whilst in the UK access to the internet is not censored.

A person is only liable for what they produce and place on the internet.

And finally, foreign companies have a difficult relationship with the Chinese government, whilst in the UK there's less government interference in their day-to-day operations.

So you can see what I've done, is I've looked at what I learned about China from the source.

And I've compared that with what I already knew about Britain from our previous lessons and how we control and regulate the media here.

Well done.

If you've managed to make some of those points in your response.

So, we've come to the end of our lesson now, I hope you found it interesting and the tasks interesting too.

If you've completed all of those now you should be able to do the following things.

You should be able to define the word censorship.

You should be able to see what censorship is.

You should be able to talk about the right to censor the media in a democracy and when that might happen and why? And you should also be able to compare, the control and regulation media in China, to the media in the UK and how that's controlled and regulation.

So you thank you for taking part in the lesson, it's been really wonderful to work with you.

If you're able to, please could you take a picture of your work and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher.

so they can see all the fantastic things you've been learning about today and maybe talk to them about your work.

And if you'd like to ask a parent or care to send a picture of your work at @OakNational on Twitter, and then I'll be able to see your lovely work too.

well done again, don't forget they go and complete the exit quiz now, really good luck with that.

All that's left for me to say is thank you.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your learning today.