ABSTRACT
According to conventional histories of censorship, the West solved “the problem” of censorship during the eighteenth century when the great figures of the Enlightenment confiscated the domestic stamps of church and state censors. These histories valorize the abolition of censorship as the decisive achievement of the Enlightenment. Although liberalism has always promised more democratic participation than it has delivered, it nevertheless offers the most comprehensive and fully developed ideological justification for freedom of expression and against theocratic and state censorship. This is why it has been the essential point of departure and prime target for all post-Enlightenment social and philosophical movements in the West that have sought to extend, equalize, universalize, reform, or restrict freedom of expression. Liberal democracies have always permitted censorship in wartime and in situations involving national security. Within US First Amendment law, however, military censorship has been constructed narrowly. It has authorized restrictions on information about troop movements, battle plans, and other sensitive information.
