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Ottoman Censorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876–1908

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Donald J. Cioeta
Donald J. Cioeta
Affiliation:
Portland, Oregon
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Extract

Since the first printed books and newspapers, official censorship has been the norm, not the exception. Although we often regard freedom of the press as an integral part of Anglo-American law, the principle was only established after 1688. The English press did not completely escape such press control measures as seditious libel prosecutions and confiscatory taxes until the 1860s.1 Official censorship in the United States has been directed against left-wing agitation, alleged pornography, and most recently, exposure of national secrets. France and Germany have suffered various degrees of official censorship, including the most draconian. Russia has scarcely known any period in which both preand postpublication censorship was not practiced. In view of the universality of censorship, Ottoman censorship in Lebanon and Syria deserves close examination in its historical context instead of the unanimous condemnation accorded it heretofore.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , May 1979 , pp. 167 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

Author's Note: A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 8th annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, 8 November 1974, in Boston. Part of the research was done while the author held a Fuibright-Hays Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship in 1973.Google Scholar

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18 Sarkis, pp. 20–23.Google Scholar

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22 Ibid., pp. 12–13. Sarkīs says that the incident happened in 1885, but it actually occurred in 1889.

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32 General statements on the prohibition of these words are in ‘al-Alāfz… al-Hamīdī,’ al-Manār, p. 797; al-Bustānī, p. 28; and Sarkis, pp. 14, 21. Specific cases of censorship are in Sarkīs, pp. 30, 46.Google Scholar

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37 Sarkis mentions the publication of a book of popular proverbs and a narrative poem about two lovers, both of which might be considered popular literature (Sarkis, pp. pp. 38–43). Zaydān may have been referring to his own novels, some of which were excluded from the Ottoman Empire. ‘al-Baqīyah ta'tī’ was used throughout ‘Abdül Hamid's reign. A late example is at the end of ‘Niziām al-Būlīs al-Jadid,’ TF, no. 1660 (17 Feb. 1908), p. 7.Google Scholar

38 There were several articles in the newspaper Tarāblus al-Shām, for instance, on women's receptiveness to education. Some were reprinted in Riyād Tarāblus al-Shām, I (1892–1893), 805, 117.Google Scholar

39 Sarkis, pp. 45, See the appendix for examples of warnings for changing words, adding sentences and ignoring the sensor's deletions.Google Scholar

40 The language used in the warning issued to al-Ahwāl on 14 Otober 1900 indicates that ‘violation of the basic principles of the Press Law’ meant that the editor had not submitted something for censorship (see the appendix.)Google Scholar

41 Farag, Nadia, ‘The Lewis Affair and the Fortunes of al-Muqtataf,’ Middle Eastern Studies, 8, 1 (01 1972), 73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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43 FO 78.3986, ‘French Press in Egypt, Suppression of the Bosphore Ègyptienne, Press Law in Egypt, 28 January–23 April 1885' contains the correspondence on the applicability of the Egyptian Press Law to foreign nationals. Of particular interest is Enclosure VIII to a letter from Lord Cromer to Lord Granville dated 24 April 1885, entitled ‘ÉEtat des arrêtes concernant imprimeries et la presse étrangères.’ Cromer made it clear that the Bosphore Égyptienne was suspended at his request in a letter to Granville dated 28 January 1885.Google ScholarGalal, Kamal el-Din, Entstehung und Entwicklung der Tagespresse in Aegypten (Limburg: Limber Vereinsdruckerei G.m.b.H., 1939), p. 121.Google Scholar For a discussion of the Egyptian Press Law and its application see Fouad, Mahmoud, Le regime de la presse en Egypte (Paris: Soc. de Recueil Sirey, 1912), pp. 13–15, 24, 49, 59–60;Google Scholar also, Sābāt, Khalīl, 'Aziz, Sāmi, and Rizq, Yunān Labib, Hurrīyat al-sihāfah fī Misr, 1898–1924 (Cairo: Maktabat al-Wa'ī al-'Arabī, 1972).Google Scholar

44 TF, no. 1696 (a Nov. 1908), p. 1.Google Scholar