
App 'Censorship' Has German Tabloid Fighting Mad - alexandros
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,679976,00.html
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StudyAnimal
Heh American phone, American morals I guess. Germany should make a phone and
we could have all the scheisse porn apps we would ever need. Germany would
just ban all the violent apps and WWII strategy games instead.

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c1sc0
Actually, they already _do_ : try to find an original version of Castle
Wolfenstein. For all the press freedom we have over here (Germany), swastikas
are still a big no-no.

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lurch_mojoff
Oh, for the love of...

OK, Bild, you don't like that Apple's new policy is screwing with your promo
app, I get it. But can we cut the "freedom of the press" bull crap. Not that I
should expect rationality and perspective from a tabloid rag, but is it even
worth the energy to get into that argument - does anyone who matters buy that
line?

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ugh
I do. The case is certainly not as clear cut as Bild claims but Bild might
have a subtler point.

After all Apple does censor (if censorship is defined as checking content
before publishing and rejecting certain content based on certain criteria) -
but that certainly doesn't have to be a problem. After all editors in chief
censor, too (using that same definition).

We have no problem with that because there are several competing newspapers
which create ample pluralism without any need to intervene when editors in
chief censor.

We (i.e. Germany) don't rely on that when it comes to broadcasting. That's why
we have public broadcasting institutions. They were created because it was
believed that merely private broadcasting is unable to create ample pluralism.
Too few frequencies, too expensive equipment - a technolgy to which only a
select few have access. Not enough for a democratic society. Or so it was
thought.

This is not to claim that any of those views (i.e. private competition among
newspapers creates ample pluralism, the same won't work with broadcasting and
public broadcasting can solve that problem) are correct, it's just to say that
we traditonally have no problem treating media organisations differently than,
say, manufacturers of toys.

It's a valid argument to have whether Apple should be allowed to freely censor
or not. Ok, maybe not right now (the App Store is still somewhat unimportant
and far from having any kind of monopoly on paid media content), but at least
in principle the discussion is not without merit.

