ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the challenges posed to censorship in the twentieth century by the publication of works such as James Joyce's Ulysses and D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. The ultimate failure to prosecute successfully books like these opened the gates for the publication of works which could not be defended on their literary, artistic, scientific, social or educational value, and a similar liberalisation of censorship standards took place in the cinema in the 1960s. In 1966 the Roman Catholic Church discontinued its Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books), which had been in effect since 1559, but the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in 1988 proved that theocratic censorial forces could still be aroused with great ferocity in the late twentieth century and that Western democratic nations were not immune to their effects. Indeed, Rushdie's book was also condemned as offensive by certain non-Muslims, which demonstrates that while contemporary secular societies valorise free expression, they still draw various boundaries, and every democratic franchise for free expression includes a number of exceptions. In recent times, the question of where to draw the lines has been asked with increasing frequency and urgency. The chapter argues that whilst freedom of expression requires constant defence, it is never absolute, and seldom equitably distributed. It can have unintended consequences that require caution, critique and correction.
