14. Media Control in the Twentieth Century

Media control by which the duplication and distribution of knowledge are under attendance is as old as modern media. Efforts at control emerged rather quickly after the printing press was invented, first inaugurated by the Catholic Church but soon adopted by the state(s). The reasons were similar but the conditions varied from country to country. The decline of government control began in England at the end of the seventeenth century; other countries followed with more or less delay. At the end of the nineteenth century, pre-censorship had generally been abolished in the European countries; however, the twentieth century did not become an era of press freedom as expected. This resulted from totalitarian ideologies and two world wars. Additionally, the rise of new media (film, radio, TV) triggered a renewal of control measures. Recently the Internet has emerged as a new battlefield for conflicts between freedom and control. A review of media control at the end of the twentieth century shows a rather mixed pattern, especially for the world as a whole, as evidenced by annual surveys by non-governmental organizations like Reporters Without Boundaries or the International Press Institute.