Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

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GINO MOLITERNO

CENSIS

Originally founded in 1964 as a private institute for socioeconomic research, the CENSIS

(Centre Studi Investimenti Sociali, or Centre for the Study of Social Investments)

received official recognition for the high standard of its work in 1973 when it was

granted the legal status of a state foundation. As such, it has since carried out a wide

range of studies and research into all aspects of economic and social developments in

Italy, and in 1989 was placed under the direction of the newly-instituted Ministry for

Universities and Scientific and Technological Research (MURST). While conducting

specific surveys on commission for other national agencies or private firms, the CENSIS

also publishes an authoritative annual report on the state of Italian society, which since

1984 has also appeared in English as Italy Today.

GINO MOLITERNO

censorship

Notwithstanding a new constitution which sanctified the principle of freedom of

expression, censorship did not disappear with the fall of Fascism and continued to be

used in postwar Italy for both political and moral reasons. Together with the legislation

against pornography, norms regarding offences to the Republic and its institutions, to

the armed forces, to the nation, to the flag, to state religion and to its clergy, to public

servants, magistrates and to foreign heads of state have survived and legitimated

censorial interventions.

During the second half of the 1940s and throughout the 1950s, censorship was

particularly severe because the political and social leadership was convinced of the

necessity to defend Italy against a concerted attack by Marxists, free-thinkers and

pornographers. In 1947 prefects, acting on behalf of the government, ordered the

confiscation of numerous books, including La Romana (The Woman of Rome) by

Alberto Moravia. Even well-known works of classical art were censored. Again in 1947,

a Roman Court declared that the reproduction of famous nudes by Goya and Allori in a

popular magazine was a criminal offence, because these paintings could arouse sexual

desires when isolated from their ‘proper’ cultural context.

Political censorship was also common in this period. During the campaign for the

pivotal elections of April 1948, the prefects often prohibited the posting of political

manifestos. Newspapers were forbidden to publish information about strikes and social

unrest because this was considered a threat to public order. The situation did not change

greatly after the victory of the DC. The new government, dominated by Catholic forces,

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seriously restricted opportunity for political discussion, and was particularly severe about

presumed offences to the institutions and state religion. A famous case involved Guido

Aristarco and Renzo Renzi, who were arrested in 1953 and condemned by a military

court for having offended the army by publishing a film script dealing with sexual

relations between Italian soldiers and Greek women during the Second World War.

Film directors needed to be very careful if they wanted to avoid cuts ordered by the

Board of Censors. The social criticism of neorealist films could be interpreted as

offensive to national dignity, while any reference to divorce or adultery was presumed to

offend public decency and family order. In 1947, many prominent directors signed a

letter denouncing the attempt to reintroduce preventive censorship of films, rather than on

viewing the final product. In 1952 Vitaliano Brancati added his voice to protests against

the censors who had prohibited even the staging of Machiavelli’s sixteenth-century

classic La Mandragola, to say nothing about Feydeau’s plays which made fun of

adultery, or the politically disturbing plays by Bertold Brecht. However, the Catholic

organizations which campaigned in favour of ‘moral rearmament’ found a strong ally in

the Minister of Internal Affairs, who characterized as culturame (cultural trash) all those

who disagreed with his frequent use of censorship.

Catholic censorship played an important role in integrating and reinforcing state

censorship. In 1949, the last Index librorum prohibitorum was published. Among the new

entries were books by the idealist philosopher Benedetto Groce and the popular novels of

Guido Da Verona. However, as it proved impossible to review the never-ending stream

of new books, the Index was officially abolished in 1965.

More important were the activities of the Catholic Centre for Cinema, which was

created in 1935 with the precise purpose of ‘moralizing’ the film industry and which

published short descriptions of all films together with a moral classification. This

publication was patently intended to orient the public, but it also served to pressure film

producers and distributors since no film labelled ‘for adults only’ or worse could be

shown in cinemas controlled by the clergy.

During the 1950s, state censorship continued to limit the freedom of expression of

journalists, writers and film directors. Danilo Dolci was accused of obscenity for some

pages of his investigations of poverty in Palermo. Manlio Cancogni was condemned for

libel after having published his famous denunciation of illegal speculation in the building

industry in Rome. Both Moravia and Pier Paolo Pasolini had to fight off the censors for

almost all their books and films. Under these circumstances, even the attempts of the

Viareggio carnival to satirize political leaders were unwelcome and the legal authorities

prohibited the more caustic elements, threatening to confiscate the carnival floats.

The relatively more tolerant attitude which was gradually becoming more common

among magistrates during the 1960s did not exclude occasional upsurges of repression,

often based on the personal initiatives of local attorneys such as Pietro Trombi and

Carmelo Spagnuolo. RAI television continued to be regulated by a strict moral code

which excluded anything controversial. A special committee was nominated to draw up

guidelines and exercise control. However, self-censorship and conformism normally

prevailed, and authoritarian interventions were rarely necessary. Only with the rise of

private radio and television stations in the 1970s did a more critical attitude became

common. At the same time, eroticism became a common ingredient of television shows.

Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 152

During the period of political unrest following 1968, censorship was used against the

extraparliamentary Left press. In 1969, Francesco Tolin was condemned to prison for

having exalted political violence on the pages of Potere operaio (Workers’ Power). Other

newspapers were also denounced for inciting and defending what was regarded as

criminal behaviour.

In the 1980s, censorship more often took the form of self-censorship: the authors or

producers avoided interventions by legal authorities, popular protests and financial losses

by omitting what might be considered illegal, immoral or offensive. However, in 1986

the Ministry of Internal Affairs was still instructing the police to use all available legal

and administrative rules to combat obscenity. As most magistrates adhered to a

relativistic interpretation of the notion of public morality, police efforts often did not lead

to a conviction. Significantly, in 1986 the Penal Court of Rome declared that the film

Ultimo tango a Parigi (Last Tango in Paris) by Bernardo Bertolucci could no longer be

considered obscene because the sensibility of the general public had changed.

In the 1990s, the uncertain rules of commercial culture often substituted formal

censorship, which continued, however, to be applied against the more extreme forms of

pornography. Furthermore, the attempts in the late 1990s to introduce legislation for the

protection of privacy and a number of proposals aiming at protecting minors against the

negative influence of mass media may nevertheless lead to new limitations to the

freedom of expression.