I love it when you can actually see censorship in action. In the 1980s, when I’d come across foreign magazines in India, I’d often notice bits blacked out from the pages. Maps of India showing a controversial Kashmir generally got a stamp stating the map wasn’t accurate, and I distinctly remember an issue of Esquire made doubly delicious by the necessity of imagination. “That’s the job I’d love to have,” I once thought to myself. Sit all day looking for bare skin in magazines and then blank them out with a tender caress of my black marker pen.
Well, it’s much worse in Iran, of course, where even bare shoulders are a problem. Reader Corporate Whore points me to an old post by Jonathan Lundqvist with many examples of Iranian censorship in action. Immense amusement comes, for the black markings focus more attention on the objectionable object than the picture itself would have.