The Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF), Radio Hot Chocolate and the Georgian PEN Center will present “Dialogue on Censorship”, Lasha Bughadze’s weekly program.
The program will be aired every Wednesday at 7 p.m. starting from January 16 by Hot Chocolate Radio (98.5 FM). The program will be repeated on Wednesday at 03:15 a.m. as well as on Thursday and Sunday at 2 p.m.
About the program content:
The way in which cultural development took place in different countries under totalitarian regimes varies considerably: in some places, the people that were stripped off freedom and suppressed experienced a spiritual setback and could not create anything worthy in the sphere of culture, while in other places the result was quite the opposite, the authoritarian regimes provided kind of an incentive for creating masterpieces. China of the times of Mao’s Cultural Revolution with almost nothing created in the cultural sphere could serve as a good example for the first case, while the Soviet Union, where the masterpieces like Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” or Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” were produced next to poor quality propaganda literature, paintings and movies – for the second.
Even though the mankind seems to have analyzed the regimes of the past and rejected totalitarianism as a form of governance, signs of totalitarianism still persist in some countries. These signs may be observed even in so-called democratic societies that are focused on European values. This is basically reflected in the approach of the ruling authorities to the art: except for applying disguised censorship, the authorities in such countries have made attempts to interfere with the “selection” of the ways in which the culture should develop. The program will focus on the ways of cultural development during different totalitarian regimes and the adverse effect of the government interference with the culture development.
See the webpage of the program at Facebook…http://www.facebook.com/#!/DialogiCenzuraze