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Hot Topics

Censored!

On this page we'll keep track of attempts to censor history. Entries are often drawn directly from the websites cited without quotation marks.

  • Indians: With this year marking the 300th anniversary of the Deerfield MA raid, the local historical society -- which oversees many of the markers -- has taken to placing removable covers on memorials with language it considers offensive, such as references to ''savages" and ''Negro servants." (June 2004)

  • American Music: Long before Janet Jackson's breast set off national hand-wringing over smut on our airwaves, the world was already a dicey place. Or so Seattle music historian Peter Blecha maintains in his new book,"Taboo Tunes, A History of Banned Bands and Censored Songs," which romps through centuries of public outrage over music of every sort, from bawdy tavern ditties to gritty hip-hop. (May 2004)

  • China: China has banned a Swedish-made computer game accused of"distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty," by showing Manchuria, Tibet and Xinjiang as independent nations, state press said. The computer game,"Hearts of Iron", made by the Stockholm-based games developer Paradox Entertainment, also showed Taiwan as a part of Japan, Xinhua news agency said, citing a censorship committee under the Ministry of Culture."All these severely distort historical facts and violate China's gaming and Internet service regulations," the ministry said."The game should be immediately prohibited." (May 2004)

  • Montana Power: A former executive's written history of the Montana Power Co., a document that the company refused for three decades to allow to be published, is finally seeing the light of day. Cecil Kirk's 483-page, three-volume history, which he completed in 1970 after his retirement, was donated Monday to the Montana Historical Society by NorthWestern Energy, which took over Montana Power's energy transmission systems two years ago when they were sold to NorthWestern Corp. (April 2004)

  • Belgium: Tonight, Belgian television will show the BBC documentary"White King, Red Rubber, Black Death," about Belgian King Leopold II's reign of terror in his private Congo colony in 1885-1908. The documentary, hardly the stuff of controversy anywhere else, almost didn't make it onto the airwaves here. (April 2004)

  • Russia: Under Putin Russians are once again rewriting history; a new textbook on 20th century Russian history makes no mention of Stalin's ethnic deportations (perhaps to avoid a"distorting" connection with the current Chechen war), largely reduces the period of the Red Terror to 1936-38 and describes the years of Putin's rule in laudatory terms. (March 2004)

  • India: Earlier this week, BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde had called for a ban on the floor of the assembly on Jawaharlal Nehru's book Discovery of India , alleging that some editions contained disparaging remarks about Shivaji. But noted historian Y D Phadke told this newspaper that the first edition of the book, published in 1945, contains no such derogatory remark. (March 2004)

  • USA: The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression invites the submissions of opinions as to the most ridiculous and/or egregious acts of censorship to have occurred in 2003. (Jan. 2004)

  • Russia: President Vladimir Putin has ordered a review of all history textbooks after one controversial book asked students to debate whether he was a dictator running a police state. (Jan. 2004)

  • India: The bitter tussle between the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the HRD Ministry ended with the ouster of ICHR chief Prof M.G.S. Narayanan. Narayanan’s troubles began after his interview to The Indian Express where he criticised the NCERT’s new history books and pointed out numerous errors in the section on South Indian history. Added to these allegations, Ministry sources added that he was running up ‘‘unauthorised expenditure on home office (in Kozhikode, Kerala) to the tune of Rs 11.38 lakh.’’ (Dec. 2003)

  • China: China has banned a new, critical biography of China's beloved premier, Zhou Enlai, which charges that dictator Mao Zedong denied Zhou critical health care that could have put off his death and set off firecrackers on the day he died in 1976. (Dec. 2003)

  • U.S.: A seventh-grade social studies teacher in Maine who said he was barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations has sued his school district, claiming it violated his First Amendment right of free expression. (Dec. 2003)

  • Russia: Russia's Ministry of Education has decided to remove its seal of approval from a high school textbook that encouraged students to research and discuss controversial topics in Russia's history. (Dec. 2003)

  • The Historian Confederate Descendants Want Fired for Writing a Critical Review of Gods and Generals. (Oct. 2003)

  • Chinese edition of Hillary's memoirs censored; excludes critical comments made about China. (Sept. 2003)

  • New Zealand historian claims he's being censored. (Aug. 2003)

  • South Koreans visit Japan to protest adoption of controversial new textbook. (Aug. 2003)