The island state of Singapore in Southeast Asia has a history of film censorship, one of several techniques in state repression it uses as a furtherance of state power. Yet, Singapore's success also depends on being open to global information and cultural flows. Drawing from queer theory, this thesis examines a recent case study of film censorship in Singapore, the 2010 film, The Kids are All Right. The thesis examines laws and regulations in Singapore to understand how films are interpellated into objects of moral danger, and also the reaction of some progressive Singaporeans to the censorship. The thesis also discusses the contradictions between state censorship and the recognition of its circumvention through copyright infringement and piracy. Finally, the thesis makes some suggestions about steps that can be taken to resist against film censorship, as well as directions for future research.

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The main purpose of this BA-thesis was to do a qualitative study of the Ecuadorian journalists' personal experiences of their work conditions in relation to freedom of the press. The aim has been to analyze their personal opinions regarding censorship, the media climate and if they feel there is press freedom for journalists in Ecuador. The material has been analyzed and then complemented by theories and earlier research. Among other theories we have been using Denis McQuail's freedom principle and view of structural influences together with Graeme Burton's view of censorship. Together with earlier research about censorship and the status of freedom of the press in Ecuador we were able to put the interviewees' answers in relation to both theories and research. Our analysis showed that the interviewed journalists felt there were many obstacles when it came to the freedom of the press. One obstacle was the strain on the relationship between the government and the press which affected the media climate in a negative way. The majority of the interviewees stated that there was no complete freedom of the press in Ecuador while the ones who opposed to this still felt there were difficulties. Some even questioned whether freedom of the press was possible anywhere in the world, which also shows the complexity of the subject.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Fine Art(Printmaking), Technikon Natal, 2000. / This dissertation is concerned with the effects of censorship on the arts community during the apartheid era in South Africa, and in the post apartheid era that followed. Through interviews and various sources, a picture will be presented that examines the contrasts and similarities of the two eras. Chapter One will present an overview of South African history, from its beginnings in 1653 to the first popular election in 1994. It will show how the religious beliefs and accompanying attitudes of the in-coming colonialists created a social atmosphere in which the system of apartheid was able to flourish and grow. It will also show how apartheid ultimately crumbled under pressure from growing resistance and violence among the people it sought to control. Chapter Two is comprised primarily of the results of several interviews with selected artists, showing how the various individuals thought about censorship, how they dealt with all the restrictive laws, and how they were able to pursue their art making under these conditions. Personal experiences illuminate the effects of such censorship, and opinions about the value and necessity of censorship are summarized. Various of the interviewees talk specifically about what actions they took under the apartheid regime, and how they viewed, and continue to view, the role of the artist in society. Chapter Three uses several case studies to illustrate what is currently happening concerning censorship and art in the post-apartheid era. Opinions and reactions to current conditions will be presented, and specific instances of censorship or attempted censorship will offer a comparison with the previous era. This will illustrate how much liberty artists today enjoy in South Africa. Several significant issues are raised by such examples; Issues of potency and importance to any culture. Finally, the artists themselves look ahead, and provide a picture of the future for arts in this society . / M

二零一零年一月，全球最大的互联网搜索引擎谷歌在其官网上宣布了他们由于不满中国政府长期以来的网络审查制度而有意退出中国市场的决定。西方主流媒体及评论家对于中国的网络审查制度惯常以负面评价为主。中国民众对此又持怎样的态度呢？这个研究将焦点放在了中国的海归派身上。由于长年游走在中国大陆及海外之间，他们常常可以体验及比较不同地区的网络世界，故此对网络审查比一般的中国大陆民众有更深的体会及更详尽的洞悉。本研究旨在探索这群曾在或仍在中国境外居住的中国人是如何理解中国的互联网审查制度的。 / 在此研究的受访对象中，有些人将网络审查视为一个来自政府的负面干涉，并认为它代表了一个不诚实的政府。而另一些人则认为由于中国社会及中国文化的特殊性，网络审查制度有其存在的道理。虽然受访对象的看法多样，但他们在谈论这个话题的时候都表现出了一种充满矛盾感的民族主义情节 ---他们会竭力为一个另自己蒙羞的政府辩护。通过深入分析了这种充满矛盾感的民族主义情节：它是如何产生的，又意味着什么，它与网络审查制度又有何相关，笔者力图强调，本研究受访对象的国家认同感在这个辩护过程中得到了加强。此分析有助于更好的了解中国的网络审查制度，以及它的合理性是如何被塑造出来的。 / In January, 2010, the biggest internet search engine, Google, announced its potential exodus from the Chinese market due to China’s practice of censorship. Many foreign commentators have criticized China’s practice of censorship. But what are the views of Chinese citizens? This research focuses on a special group of Chinese netizens called “returnees“ [overseas Chinese who are living in between China and elsewhere], who have experienced both the domestic and overseas cyber-worlds. Through studying their perspectives on censorship, this research seeks to understand how those who have lived outside China understand internet censorship within China. / Some informants view internet censorship as a negative intrusion and a representation of an untruthful government while others consider it as a necessity in managing China’s cyberspace due to the special cultural context of Chinese society. Though their perceptions vary, my informants expressed a paradoxical nationalism, defending a government they felt ashamed of; this was expressed repeatedly during interviews. In this thesis, by bringing censorship and nationalism together, I analyze in depth my informants’ paradoxical and conflicting attitude toward these two concepts, in order to better understand Chinese censorship and how it may be justified. I argue that by defending censorship, my informants’ Chinese identities have been reinforced. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Chang, Xinyue. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-165). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Introduction: “The Google-China Affair“ --- p.2 / Chinese Returnees --- p.4 / TheNascent Public Sphere, Censorship, and the Google-China Affair --- p.5 / AnHistorical Perspective --- p.13 / Methodology --- p.21 / Chapter Breakdown --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter2. --- Literature Review --- p.26 / The Anthropology of Cyberspace --- p.26 / China’s Cyberspace --- p.36 / Nationalismand Chinese Nationalism --- p.39 / Chapter Chapter3. --- The Google-China Affair --- p.53 / TheSage of Google and China --- p.58 / Reviewing the Saga through the Eyes of Chinese Returnees --- p.63 / Follow-Up --- p.77 / Conclusion --- p.77 / Chapter Chapter4. --- Freedom of Information --- p.79 / Universal Human Rights vs. Cultural Relativism --- p.79 / Individual Agency vs. State Control --- p.85 / Market Domination vs. State Control --- p.90 / The Concept of Rationality --- p.92 / Responses to Moral Discipline --- p.97 / Conclusion --- p.101 / Chapter Chapter5. --- Freedom of Speech --- p.103 / Freedom in Relation to Speech --- p.105 / Twitter and Sina Weibo --- p.109 / Liu Xiaobo --- p.116 / Ai Weiwei --- p.119 / The Chinese Jasmine Movement --- p.122 / Conclusion --- p.124 / Chapter Chapter6. --- Conclusion: Censorship and Chinese Nationalism --- p.129 / The Conundrum of Self-Flagellating National Pride --- p.130 / Repressive Hypothesis --- p.136 / Presentation of Self and Rituals of Rebellion --- p.141 / Collective Memory Construction --- p.149 / Conclusion: Censorship and Nationalism --- p.151 / Bibliography --- p.156

Billions of people in the world live under heavy information censorship. We propose a new class of delay tolerant network (DTN), known as a censorship tolerant network (CTN), to counter the growing practice of Internet-based censorship. CTNs should provide strict guarantees on the privacy of both information shared within the network and the identities of network participants. CTN software needs to be publicly available as open source software and run on personal mobile devices with real-world computational, storage, and energy constraints. We show that these simple assumptions and system constraints have a non-obvious impact on the design and implementation of CTNs, and serve to differentiate our system design from previous work. We design data routing within a CTN using a new paradigm: one where nodes operate selfishly to maximize their own utility, make decisions based only on their own observations, and only communicate with nodes they trust. We introduce the Laissez-faire framework, an incentivized approach to CTN routing. Laissez-faire does not mandate any specific routing protocol, but requires that each node implement tit-for-tat by keeping track of the data exchanged with other trusted nodes. We propose several strategies for valuing and retrieving content within a CTN. We build a prototype BlackBerry implementation and conduct both controlled lab and field trials, and show how each strategy adapts to different network conditions. We further demonstrate that, unlike existing approaches to routing, Laissez-faire prevents free-riding. We build an efficient and reliable data transport protocol on top of the Short Message Service (SMS) to serve a control channel for the CTN. We conduct a series of experiments to characterise SMS behaviour under bursty, unconventional workloads. This study examines how variables such as the transmission order, delay between transmissions, the network interface used, and the time-of-day affect the service. We present the design and implementation of our transport protocol. We show that by adapting to the unique channel conditions of SMS we can reduce message overheads by as much as 50\% and increase data throughput by as much as 545% over the approach used by existing applications. A CTN's dependency on opportunistic communication imposes a significant burden on smartphone energy resources. We conduct a large-scale user study to measure the energy consumption characteristics of 20100 smartphone users. Our dataset is two orders of magnitude larger than any previous work. We use this dataset to build the Energy Emulation Toolkit (EET) that allows developers to evaluate the energy consumption requirements of their applications against real users' energy traces. The EET computes the successful execution rate of energy-intensive applications across all users, specific devices, and specific smartphone user-types. We also consider active adaptation to energy constraints. By classifying smartphone users based on their charging characteristics we demonstrate that energy level can be predicted within 72% accuracy a full day in advance, and through an Energy Management Oracle energy intensive applications, such as CTNs, can adapt their execution to maintain the operation of the host device.

Billions of people in the world live under heavy information censorship. We propose a new class of delay tolerant network (DTN), known as a censorship tolerant network (CTN), to counter the growing practice of Internet-based censorship. CTNs should provide strict guarantees on the privacy of both information shared within the network and the identities of network participants. CTN software needs to be publicly available as open source software and run on personal mobile devices with real-world computational, storage, and energy constraints. We show that these simple assumptions and system constraints have a non-obvious impact on the design and implementation of CTNs, and serve to differentiate our system design from previous work. We design data routing within a CTN using a new paradigm: one where nodes operate selfishly to maximize their own utility, make decisions based only on their own observations, and only communicate with nodes they trust. We introduce the Laissez-faire framework, an incentivized approach to CTN routing. Laissez-faire does not mandate any specific routing protocol, but requires that each node implement tit-for-tat by keeping track of the data exchanged with other trusted nodes. We propose several strategies for valuing and retrieving content within a CTN. We build a prototype BlackBerry implementation and conduct both controlled lab and field trials, and show how each strategy adapts to different network conditions. We further demonstrate that, unlike existing approaches to routing, Laissez-faire prevents free-riding. We build an efficient and reliable data transport protocol on top of the Short Message Service (SMS) to serve a control channel for the CTN. We conduct a series of experiments to characterise SMS behaviour under bursty, unconventional workloads. This study examines how variables such as the transmission order, delay between transmissions, the network interface used, and the time-of-day affect the service. We present the design and implementation of our transport protocol. We show that by adapting to the unique channel conditions of SMS we can reduce message overheads by as much as 50\% and increase data throughput by as much as 545% over the approach used by existing applications. A CTN's dependency on opportunistic communication imposes a significant burden on smartphone energy resources. We conduct a large-scale user study to measure the energy consumption characteristics of 20100 smartphone users. Our dataset is two orders of magnitude larger than any previous work. We use this dataset to build the Energy Emulation Toolkit (EET) that allows developers to evaluate the energy consumption requirements of their applications against real users' energy traces. The EET computes the successful execution rate of energy-intensive applications across all users, specific devices, and specific smartphone user-types. We also consider active adaptation to energy constraints. By classifying smartphone users based on their charging characteristics we demonstrate that energy level can be predicted within 72% accuracy a full day in advance, and through an Energy Management Oracle energy intensive applications, such as CTNs, can adapt their execution to maintain the operation of the host device.

<p>The main purpose of this BA-thesis was to do a qualitative study of the Ecuadorian journalists' personal experiences of their work conditions in relation to freedom of the press. The aim has been to analyze their personal opinions regarding censorship, the media climate and if they feel there is press freedom for journalists in Ecuador.</p><p>The material has been analyzed and then complemented by theories and earlier research. Among other theories we have been using Denis McQuail's freedom principle and view of structural influences together with Graeme Burton's view of censorship. Together with earlier research about censorship and the status of freedom of the press in Ecuador we were able to put the interviewees' answers in relation to both theories and research.</p><p>Our analysis showed that the interviewed journalists felt there were many obstacles when it came to the freedom of the press. One obstacle was the strain on the relationship between the government and the press which affected the media climate in a negative way. The majority of the interviewees stated that there was no complete freedom of the press in Ecuador while the ones who opposed to this still felt there were difficulties. Some even questioned whether freedom of the press was possible anywhere in the world, which also shows the complexity of the subject.</p>

The commercialization and global transformation of the Chinese film industry demonstrates that this industry has been experiencing drastic changes within the new social and economic environment of China in which film has become a commodity generating high revenues. However, the Chinese government still exerts control over the industry which is perceived as an ideological tool. They believe that the films display and contain beliefs and values of certain social groups as well as external constraints of politics, economy, culture, and ideology. And, ironically, the films censored in China often gain great fame outside of China becoming worldwide blockbusters. This study will look at how those films are banned by the Chinese film censorship system through analyzing their essential cinematic elements, including narrative, filming, editing, sound, color, and sponsor and publisher. The study will also analyze how the combination of government control and market forces influence the Chinese film industry and its production.