ABSTRACT
Censorship involves an authoritative decision that seeks to block expression in its various forms on the basis that it violates standards imposed by the censoring authority. Censorship in the Western world is as old as recorded history. Although Socrates epitomizes freedom of expression, his student Plato advocated a strict censorship regime. As a means for deciding what was and was not permissible, Plato proposed the position of Guardian, a class of educated-elite who would safeguard the philosopher-king's values. Greeks like Anaxagoras, who was fined, and Protagoras, who was banished for blasphemy, are illustrious victims of Greek censorship. Roman poets like Ovid and Juvenal, whom Roman officials banished, illustrate the effects of censorship in Rome. Censorship in the Roman Christian Church was extensive and began as early as 150 c.E. when the Council of Ephesus prohibited publication of Acta Pauli, an unauthorized biography of Saint Paul. The 1643 Ordinance for Printing expired by its terms in 1694, never to be renewed.
