Censorship: What we’re trying to say…Drafting the IFLA Statement on Censorship

Abstract

On 25 August 2019, the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) endorsed and published a new IFLA Statement on Censorship. The statement had been drafted by the IFLA Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) Advisory Committee over the course of the previous year. The present article describes the process of creating the statement, highlighting several questions that the committee had to consider along the way. For example, in choosing a definition of censorship, the committee decided to create one that was conceptually limited and linguistically neutral (in the sense of not simply borrowing the existing definition of a national association). As well, the committee needed to explain why censorship was problematic, essentially proposing that it offends against the library principle of equity of access to information. The committee also had to consider how to account for the apparent acceptability in most societies of some forms of censorship, in spite of the generally problematic nature of censorship, and proposed that, as suggested by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 29, some limitations on liberties may be permissible for the general welfare of society – though not to the extent that the general concept of FAIFE is significantly compromised.