Censorship in World War One

           How was journalism affected by censorship and banning? World War One changed journalism for the whole world. Most of the nations that participated had strict regulations on what they could publish and how journalists could obtain their information. The United States had many of their own laws, like the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, which regulated much of the information about the war that the public should have been able to read. Advances were made in technology that were also regulated, or even banned! Because of regulations on pictures, the citizens of the USA (and other nations too) were not able to see that the war was very bloody and horrifying.

A camera used to photograph WWI

           The passing of the Espionage Act on June 15, 1917 was a major event that halted most journalism on the war. Any information about location of troops, movement,  number of troops, new weapons, or anything else that might be of value to the enemy was restricted. Even though the act stated things of value to the enemy were to be censored, many things that weren't of any use to them were excluded. Things like articles discussing fatalities and various training photographs, both of which would not be useful, were banned. The Espionage Act also banned the operations of the military or war productions, which generally meant that journalists could no longer watch training or the front lines (or nothing at all).  This act very much adversely affected journalism for the war, since journalists couldn't "interfere" with the military and couldn't discuss things that might (or might not!) be of value to the enemy. The Sedition Act regulated this sort of stuff even more! The act made publishing any "Disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States or the Constitution, military or naval forces, flag or the uniform." This seems specific, but the regulation of these rules was not. This adversely affected journalism just like the Espionage Act. 

           The American use of propaganda is notorious for its portrayal of Germans, but some propaganda also included pictures from the war. Due to the stiff regulations by the government, pictures of battles were not able to be shown. There were more pictures of training and parades than there were battlefield pictures. This is unfortunate, although it did not stop the propaganda from working.

Censored photograph of training

            News coverage of the war was very unfortunate. There had been many new technologies developed, but because of the censorship, most were regulated and censored to no end. The Trans-Atlantic cable was, at the time, the quickest way to move information from Europe to the USA. The cable, unfortunately, was extremely censored, which made using it almost useless. Film Cameras by then were more portable and easier to use, were also heavily censored, so today we have a severely limited amount of video from the war. There was then film in the video cameras, which was new at the time. The camera, of course, was also heavily censored. US photographers weren't allowed to take many pictures of battles. The regulations were less strict in other countries, but not by much. The wireless telegraph (which I had never even heard of before my research) was banned from reporting due to the ease of tapping. 

           The Committee on Public Information (CPI) had a large part in the regulation and censorship of newspapers. The CPI requested many different things to be censored. They requested the censorship of advance reports, troop and ship movements, defenses (including anti-aircraft and harbor), and troop strengths. This was incredibly damaging to Journalists, because that leaves nothing to write about the war in the newspaper! If they had discussed the diet of the troops, that even might have been censored! 

 Military censors working

 Censored envelope

           The most disappointing part of the huge censorship during World War I was the censorship of soldiers mail. Almost everything, including location, numbers, advancements, and most everything else, were banned from the letters. This meant that soldiers couldn't tell their families where they were, what they were doing, when they would be home, or even how they were feeling. This was probably very taxing on both the soldier and his family. The family usually had no clue what was going on, which is very unfortunate. The way the mail was censored, however, is quite interesting. When the soldiers would send a letter, sometimes the officer would be the one censoring, but more often than not, unimportant people (eg. Dentist, Chaplain) would do most of the censoring. Officers actually "Self-Censored", which may have aggravated the soldiers quite a bit. Every once in a while, the officers would be spot-checked, but that usually didn't happen. If a soldier didn't want to have his mail read by his officer (possible reason: if he had been given a hard time by the officer), he sent it off in a blue envelope and have a higher ranking officer read it. I can only imagine what pictures, video, and information we could have today if the censoring and banning of journalism had not been so strict.

     

1.       Library of Congress

a.       I used this article because it talks about the Espionage act and the use of propaganda. I also used the newspapers shown from WWI as first sources

2.       Newseum

a.       I used this website for its discussion of the difficulties journalists faced in the war, as well as the Espionage act and what it did for reporting the war. It also discusses the process of censorship.

1.       USA WWI

a.       I used this article because it discusses the AEF and how Journalism was influenced by it.

4.       PBS

a.       I used this article to talk about what material censors were looking for in the letters, and how taxing that was for soldiers.

5.       ebscohost

a.       This article gives a brief history of the beginnings of WWI. I used it for context.

6.       Censored and Military Postal History

a.       First source – this talks about how and why pictures were banned. This includes inhumane pictures and their banning. I used it to discuss the censorship in relation to pictures.