Despite the rise of 'new media' more difficult to control and restrict within borders, censorship as the practice of limiting, regulating or expunging information, images and opinion continues to be a feature of many political contexts. In addition to examining the familiar - current and historical -- manifestations of censorship as a tool of repression, this year's State of the World Week at ECLA considers the more subtle and unexpected ways in which censorship may operate in environments ostensibly open to freedom of expression, and in particular the role of technologies, cultural conflict, and institutional frameworks in determining what can be articulated and how. 

Our investigation leads us to consider the meaning and reach of the term 'censorship' as a way of classifying practices of affecting access to written, spoken or visual forms of representation. Must it always denote a conscious and direct repressive intervention? Are there necessary forms of regulation for which it is not an appropriate term? Or should it be re-invoked to describe the effect of some of our most apparently 'free' exchanges and frameworks of communication? And finally, what is the relationship between censorship and the material --- economic and social -- mechanisms through which viewpoints and accounts of the world are transmitted?

The SWWE 2012 is structured around morning lectures by a number of prominent academics, journalists, politicians and activists, each followed by a panel discussion, moderated by one of ECLA faculty members. The list of guest speakers this year includes Roger Berkowitz (USA), Martin Krasnik (Denmark), Miklos Haraszti (Hungary), Karsten Voigt (Berlin), Christiane Wilke (Canada), Jutta Lietsch (Berlin), Eldad Beck (Israel), Heba Amin (Egypt), Evgeny Morozov (USA), and other.