Death as a Form of Censorship

Definition: Silencing critics by killing them

Significance: Governments and other groups have often resorted to this ultimate form of censorship

Those who exercise their right to free speech may pay with their lives when governments treat criticism as equivalent to treason. State authorities may first try to silence such voices by harassment and imprisonment. Execution is a formal and official act of the state (often preceded by a trial meant to demonstrate legality); state-sponsored murder and assassination are extra-judicial. Such brutal sanctions against heroic figures often backfire, however, when the victims’ words and acts are remembered more reverently in death than in life.

Assassination of Critics

The covert killing of a dissenter removes the critical voice while concealing governmental responsibility. A famous example of this practice is associated with Henry II of England. His rash words—“Who will free me from this turbulent priest?”—led to the assassination in 1170 by underlings of his former friend Thomas Becket, who had become a surprisingly independent and troublesome archbishop of Canterbury.

The kidnapping and murder of another priest, Father Jerzy Popieluszko provides a twentieth century example of this censorship technique. When the independent Polish trade union Solidarity arose in 1980 to challenge the legitimacy of the communist regime in Soviet-occupied Poland, Popieluszko praised Solidarity from the pulpit and instituted what was called a Mass for the Homeland, which became a rallying point for Solidarity activists on the last Sunday of each month. Modern technology facilitated the distribution across Poland of the popular priest’s sermons through tapes and reprints. So beloved was the humble, slight Father Jerzy that silencing him become a priority for the government.

After the suspension of Solidarity in late 1981, a campaign of harassment, ranging from punctured car tires to constant surveillance and to repeated interrogations, was directed at Popieluszko. The first attempt on the priest’s life came in 1982, when a bomb that failed to explode was thrown through his window. A year later, he was arrested for possessing illegal pamphlets and munitions, which it was later revealed (in his murderers’ trial), had been planted in his apartment by the state authorities. The indictment included the “abuse of freedom of conscience and religion” as one of his “crimes.” He rejected an offer to give up the Masses for the Homeland in exchange for dismissing the indictment (which was later dropped as part of a general amnesty).

The regime publicly warned that his activities could no longer be tolerated after his July, 1984, Mass for the Homeland drew fifteen thousand people. Father Jerzy was kidnapped on October 19, 1984, following a church service in Bydgoszcz, although his driver escaped to tell the tale. When his tortured body was found in a reservoir, he became a national martyr representing the Polish quest for independence. Lech Walesa (later the elected president of a free Poland) eulogized the priest with these words: “Solidarity lives, because you died for it.” The government maintained its innocence while convicting four secret police officials of Popieluszko’s murder.

Notable Persons Killed for Expressing Their Opinions

Execution of Dissenters

Socrates was executed by the Athenian government in 399 b.c.e. for “corrupting” its youth by promoting skepticism and thoughtful analysis of right conduct. He was put on trial as a public offender on the charge that “he does not recognize the gods that the state recognizes.” Probably his accusers were expecting Socrates to flee rather than risk conviction and the death penalty. Socrates ardently defended to the jury his commitment never to give up teaching philosophy. Moreover, he asserted that being a “gadfly” made him a precious commodity to Athens. During the weeks between his conviction of impiety and his execution, Socrates rejected opportunities to escape. His emphasis on rationally based ethics led him to conclude that he must obey state laws, including his own death sentence. Socrates sustained a philosophical discourse with his students during his imprisonment, even to his last moments after drinking hemlock. Socrates remains a dramatic champion across the ages to all advocates of critical thinking in the face of oppressive authority.

Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, was executed in about 33 c.e. primarily for claiming to be the son of God. Many Jews were awaiting the redeemer of Israel as a political leader, the king of Israel, who would overcome the Roman domination of Judea. The Romans wanted no uprising against their rule, be it religiously inspired or otherwise. They arranged to have Christ found guilty of blasphemy in a trial before the ruling council of Jewish authorities, who for their part feared a futile political upheaval. He was then turned over to the Roman procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, who reluctantly authorized Jesus’ death by crucifixion. Christianity later became the world’s largest religion.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was a prisoner of conscience who neither advocated nor employed violence in exercising his freedom of speech. Saro-Wiwa was executed in 1995 by the Nigerian military regime of General Sani Abacha. Saro-Wiwa was convicted in a trial (described as a “travesty” by The New York Times) of murder; what lead to his execution, however, was his political activism on behalf of the people of his region. As public relations officer (and later president) of the grassroots Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), he campaigned against the Abacha dictatorship on three issues. The first issue was the dictatorship’s nullification of the 1993 democratic election of Chief Moshood K. O. Abiola, who was later arrested for treason for proclaiming himself president of Nigeria. The second issue lay in the dictatorship’s rejection of autonomy for Ogoniland, home to the 500,000 Ogoni people of the Niger Delta River States. The third issue reflected the dictatorship’s indifference to the killing of the Ogoni people. Years of collusion between the government and powerful multinational companies, especially Shell Oil Company (which corrupted numerous officials with bribes stemming from the enormous oil profits taken out of Ogoniland) left the Ogoni in abject poverty and illness amidst massive oil pollution of their farming soil and fishing water.

MOSOP escalated its demands in 1992 to $10 billion in oil royalties plus environmental compensation from Shell and the government. After sporadic destruction of Shell equipment, the government’s Internal Security Forces destroyed some thirty Ogoni villages and engaged in perhaps one hundred extrajudicial murders. Saro-Wiwa was arrested on June 21, 1993, for inciting a mob, at a rally he had not attended, to murder four pro-Abacha Ogoni chiefs whom he had months earlier described as “vultures.” Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were hanged on November 10, 1995, despite vigorous condemnation by the United Nations, other groups, and private individuals around the world.

Bibliography

Amnesty International makes an annual survey of human rights standards in each state, such as “Nigeria,” in Amnesty International: Report 1996 (1996). Index on Censorship monitors free speech, along with other such organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Article Nineteen, concerning political advocacy cases. Roger Boyes and John Moody detail Popieluszko’s heroism in The Priest and the Policeman (New York: Summit Books, 1987). Grazyna Sikorska highlights the religious commitment of the slain Polish leader in Jerzy Popieluszko: A Martyr for Truth (1985). I. F. Stone’s The Trial of Socrates (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988) is a lively presentation of the meaning and context of Socrates’ fate. The Bible tells the story of Christ’s murder at the hands of political authorities.