From the Editor.

What perhaps is most striking about a common attitude towards censorship is that it contains the double-think that censorship existed only in past dark and unenlightened times but that it does not exist today. If it is pointed out to holders of this view that there is a large body of individuals today, not only being censored in that they are not allowed to express a view, but also forbidden to use or have access to modern means of communication and publishing, and that these are convicted sex offenders who have served their sentences but who are living restricted lives, some for life, we may hear the reply that these are exceptional individuals to whom such special restrictions must apply. This attitude ignores the historical fact that every age of censorship has had exceptional groups who had to be suppressed, such as heretics, witches, Jews, Communists and other dissidents. In Ancient Greece, to publish an 'indecent' article claiming that mature men should not have boy lovers might have invited prosecution for attempting to pervert the morals of the State.

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