Censorship

Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions.

Governments, private organizations and individuals may engage in censorship. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, it is called self-censorship. Censorship may be direct or it may be indirect, in which case it is called soft censorship. It occurs in a variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to control obscenity, child pornography, and hate speech, to protect children or other vulnerable groups, to promote or restrict political or religious views, and to prevent slander and libel.

Direct censorship may or may not be legal, depending on the type, place, and content. Many countries provide strong protections against censorship by law, but none of these protections are absolute and frequently a claim of necessity to balance conflicting rights is made, in order to determine what can and cannot be censored. There are no laws against self-censorship.

Censored (film)

Censored is an animated short, directed by Frank Tashlin and first released in July 1944. It is part of the Private Snafu series.

Plot

The film opens at nighttime with Snafu attempting to send a message to his girlfriend Sally Lou. He is certain that his unit is going to be sent to the South Pacific Ocean. While attempting to crawl past the censor's office, Snafu triggers an electric eye. He is detected and his message in censored. He later attempts to send a second message in the form of a paper airplane, and a third through a carrier pigeon. In each case the message is intercepted by the ever-vigilant censors.

Finally, the Technical Fairy 1st Class turns up and agrees to pass a coded message to Sally Lou. It contains the exact location of the next big operation, the island of Bingo Bango. Unfortunately, Sally Lou decides to pass the information on to her mother. From there the information spreads through gossip until it reaches the Japanese lines. A buck-toothed and bespectacled soldier notifies Tokyo. The island receives massive reinforcements and camouflaged fortifications.

Private Snafu

Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional cartoon shorts, ironic and humorous in tone, that were produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The films were designed to instruct service personnel about security, proper sanitation habits, booby traps and other military subjects, and to improve troop morale.

The series was directed by Chuck Jones and other prominent Hollywood animators, and the voice of Private Snafu was performed by Mel Blanc.

Background

The character was created by director Frank Capra, chairman of the U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, and most were written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, Philip D. Eastman, and Munro Leaf. Although the United States Army gave Walt Disney the first crack at creating the cartoons, Leon Schlesinger of the Warner Bros. animation studio underbid Disney by two-thirds and won the contract. Disney had also demanded exclusive ownership of the character, and merchandising rights.