书刊检查制度(censorship)
指对於被指控为危害公共利益的言词或文字进行压制或禁止的制度。在过去，大部分政府认为他们有责任规范其子民的品德，只有当个人地位和个人权力抬头之後，这种书刊检查制度似乎才会惹人非议。书刊检查制度可以是先发制人（避免不良刊物出版或传播），或处以刑罚（处罚那些出版或散播违法资料的人）。在欧洲，天主教和新教教会都曾实施书刊检查制度，17～18世纪时的独裁君主政权也实施书刊检查制度。中国和以前的苏联极权政府已普遍采用书刊检查制度，结果产生了一些地下反抗运动组织，如秘密出版物。美国在20世纪书刊检查制度大部分是取缔那些犯有淫秽罪名的文学作品，如乔伊斯的《尤里西斯》和劳伦斯的《查泰莱夫人的情人》，虽然有时也会实施政治性的书刊检查制度，如1950年代针对学校可能涉及左派观点的教科书进行净化。近来有人要求对那种威胁到一小部分人的所谓憎恨言论或语言加以检查。美国公民自由联盟经常反对任何的书刊检查制度。参阅Pentagon Papers。
English version：
censorship
Act of changing or suppressing speech or writing that is condemned as subversive of the common good. In the past, most governments believed it their duty to regulate the morals of their people; only with the rise in the status of the individual and individual rights did censorship come to seem objectionable. Censorship may be preemptive (preventing the publication or broadcast of undesirable information) or punitive (punishing those who publish or broadcast offending material). In Europe, both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches practiced censorship, as did the absolute monarchies of the 17th-18th century. Authoritarian governments such as those in China and the former Soviet Union have employed pervasive censorship, which is generally opposed by underground movements engaged in actions such as samizdat publication. In the U.S. in the 20th century, censorship focused largely on works of literature deemed guilty of obscenity (e.g., James Joyce's Ulysses and D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover), though periodic attempts at political censorship also occurred (e.g., the effort to purge school textbooks of possible left-wing content in the 1950s). Recently some have called for censorship of so-called hate speech, language deemed threatening (or sometimes merely offensive) to various subsections of the population. Any censorship is usually opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union. See also Pentagon Papers.