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It might be one of the leading Oscar contenders, but Indian audiences won't be seeing the full version of Moonlight.

Barry Jenkins's critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama follows three periods in the life of Chiron, a young, black, queer man growing up poor in Miami, and his journey has been heavily cut in India.

A document posted to Reddit shows that all swearing is out, with every instance of "bitch", "bitches", "motherf**ker" and "dick" muted, and two sex scenes have been cut entirely, including kissing between two men.

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The cuts total 53 seconds, but two minutes and 20 seconds of anti-smoking disclaimers have been added, with one appearing at the beginning and one in the middle of the movie, plus a "static message with scroll wherever smoking scene appears".

When we saw the full version of Moonlight, we described it as a "moving and visually beautiful film that speaks not only to gay or black audiences but to all of us".

A24

But will it be walking away with any awards at the Oscars on Sunday (February 26)?

Moonlight received eight nominations, including Best Picture, but was completely shut out at last week's BAFTA Film Awards, despite being nominated in four categories.

However, last night (February 19) saw it win at the Writers Guild Awards, which makes it a clear favourite to scoop Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars. And Moonlight's Mahershala Ali is widely expected to beat Lion's Dev Patel to Best Supporting Actor, despite Patel's BAFTA win.

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Find out if Moonlight manages to defy La La Land at the Oscars on Sunday night. Here's how you can watch it live in the UK.

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Indian censorship board cuts the sex and swearing out of Moonlight - Digital Spy

Over the next few months, therell be plenty of debate about the role of the government in funding public broadcasting.

The Trump administration reportedly has the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and a host of other cultural and arts organizations targeted for elimination.

Theres certainly a debate to be had over whether the government should provide financial assistance to a segment of the media it regulates and restricts how it can raise revenue. Theres no indication the administration nor Congress is interested in taking those restrictions off, a clear sign that the ultimate goal of politicians is to kill it.

But the New York Times media critic, Jim Rutenberg, has a cautionary tale of what can happen with a government that wants to control a message holds the money self-censorship; newsrooms that pull their punches because of the fear the government will cut the revenue.

When a Texas congressman took to the House floor to complain about the way the media has covered President Trump, a commentator for a San Antonio public TV station took notice.

Rick Casey wrote his commentary. The stations Facebook page promoted it with a nod to the upcoming broadcast.

And the stations CEO spiked it just before it was to go on the air.

When I caught up with Mr. Emerson this week he acknowledged making a mistake that should not tarnish a career spent mostly in broadcast news, starting in a $1.25-an-hour job as a cameraman. I had to make a decision in what was about 20 minutes, he said.

He acknowledged that clearly we always worry about funding for public television, but said that wasnt the principal reason for his decision to hold back the commentary. We have to protect the neutrality of the station somebody could have looked at it as slander, he said. The commentary label, he said, would take care of it.

Mr. Casey is satisfied with the result. But he acknowledged that it was a close call and that he was uniquely qualified to push back in a way others might not be. Im lucky to be in the position of being 70 years old, and not in the position of being 45, he said, meaning that job security was not the same issue. Theres no level of heroism here.

If you look at what David Brooks has said on the PBS NewsHour in his commentary with Mark Shields, hes been very forceful in his opposition to Trump, Casey told the San Antonio Express-News. So thats part of our brand, but its also part of our values. As a practical reality, if the Corporation for Public Broadcasting does lose its funding, Im too humble to think its because of a piece that I did down in San Antonio.

But the enemy of the American people is censorship, regardless of where the intimidation of an independent media originates.

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the 90s, ran MPRs political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started the two most popular blogs in the history of MPR and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories but reflections , observations, and debate.

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A preview of self-censorship in the new political landscape - Minnesota Public Radio News (blog)

New York Times

In Trump Era, Censorship May Start in the Newsroom New York Times Rick Casey, the host of a weekly public affairs program on a small television station in Texas, recently fashioned a stinging commentary on remarks by Representative Lamar Smith that was pulled shortly before it was to air. The station later reversed ...

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In Trump Era, Censorship May Start in the Newsroom - New York Times

The ACLU of Maryland contends Gov. Larry Hogan's deletion of Facebook comments is tantamount to censorship.

The civil rights organization sent the Republican governor a letter Friday outlining its legal argument that Hogan violated the First Amendment rights of his constituents when he deleted their comments from his official Facebook page and banned some people from posting.

The letter said Hogan's actions also violate the state's social media policy, and it asked the governor to reinstate seven ACLU clients who have been banned.

"If he does not, we'll take him to court," said Deborah Jeon, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Hogan's staff said in a statement they reinstated six out of the seven people, but could not find a Facebook profile for the seventh.

"We appreciate them identifying a handful of individuals out of the over 1 million weekly viewers of the page that may have been inadvertently denied access," Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said in a statement. "We have already reinstated these individuals, however we will be monitoring them closely for any profane, violent, racist, or inappropriate posts including political spamming attacks."

Chasse also said "the ACLU should be focusing on much more important activities than monitoring the governor's Facebook page."

Since he took office two years ago, Hogan has banned 450 people from leaving comments on his social media page, aides estimated. Scores were recently banned after Hogan's page was bombarded with requests to take a position on Republican President Donald J. Trump's controversial travel ban that barred immigrants from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer has said that the press staff considers such efforts "spam" and that they have a responsibility to curate the conversation online.

"We've had to remove and prevent coordinated political spam attacks from infiltrating and hijacking the page," Mayer said when the controversy surfaced two weeks ago. "We have an obligation to the 146,000 people who likes the governor's page to keep the conversation fresh, appropriate, and on topic."

Hogan has not taken a position on the travel ban, and bristled at requests for him to make comments about the Trump administration. The governor did not support Trump as a candidate.

In their letter, the ACLU contend Hogan appeared to have blocked their clients "seemingly because you did not wish to address their questions on various issues or respond to their concerns about your silence in the face of violations of civil rights and liberties by President Donald Trump and his administration."

Several other local politicians also ban posters on their Facebook page, according to The Washington Post, but do not exclude as many as the Hogan administration.

The Maryland Democratic Party and the government accountability group Common Cause have also criticized the governor for silencing constituents on Facebook.

ecox@baltsun.com

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ACLU calls Hogan Facebook policy 'censorship' - Baltimore Sun

Last month, a fire tore through an iconic Tehran high-rise building, killing more than 20 firefighters and injuring another 70 people as it collapsed.

The fire made international headlines, but it was a particularly important story for BBC Persian, the British broadcasters Persian-language service that targets Farsi speakers in Iran and neighboring countries.

Covering the story, however, presented a challenge: The Iranian government doesnt permit BBC Persian reporters in the country, and official news agencies are often not reliable.

So BBC Persian turned to a different source: Telegram, the most popular messaging app in Iran. (Its estimated that more than a quarter of all Iranians are on Telegram.) BBC Persian has more than 713,000 followers on its channel, but it also has a profile where users can get in touch with BBC Persian. After news of the fire broke, it asked its followers to share photos and videos of the fire.

Thats the main source of newsgathering at the moment for us, BBC Persian multimedia editor Leyla Khodabakhshi told me from London. The only way we could basically understand what is going on inside the country and get access to pictures was to put a call to action on different platforms and then receiving the UGC via our Telegram, she said, adding that lots of news agencies inside Iran have close ties to different political groups in the country, so you cant rely on what youre getting from the news agencies that are operating inside the country. We have to always crosscheck what we are receiving. Thats by putting different agencies together, but also to compare them to what were receiving from user-generated content as well.

The Iranian Internet is heavily censored. Facebook, Twitter, and most major social platforms are blocked. BBC Persians website is blocked (and its TV broadcasts are routinely censored as well). Even though Iranians regularly use VPNs to circumvent government censorship, BBC Persian has turned to platforms such as Telegram that are permissible in the country in order to conduct reporting and promote its coverage to a wide audience of Iranians.

This is a social circumvention strategy rather than a social media strategy, Khodabakhshi said.

BBC Persians other main platform in Iran is on Instagram, which is the rare social network that is permitted in the country.

BBC Persian has significant followings on Facebook and Twitter, but it recently surpassed 1 million followers on Instagram, where its audience tends to skew female, Khodabakhshi said.

Our strategy on Instagram is partly based on community building. Its where we try to engage women to debate news on our page, she said. Its not very straightforward, because its not a platform that is built for this type of debating or conversation, but it works for BBC Persian.

There are, of course, limitations built into Instagram, though (its difficult to share links, for instance), and thats why the Iranian government has decided at least for now not to block it, said Emad Khazraee, a professor at Kent State University who has studied social media and news consumption in Iran.

I believe the Iranian government consciously left Instagram open because the affordances of Instagram are very limited, Khazraee said. You had a hard time to use it for social activism. They then herd them to one platform by letting it be accessible while blocking the other ones. Within Facebook, you have features, like organizing groups and having private groups, that you can manage to organize protests.

BBC Persian puts most of its major stories on Instagram, Khodabakhshi said. And the account covers a wide range of stories from Playboys decision this week to bring back nude images to Austrias ban on full-face veils. It also uses Instagram to repurpose and promote BBC Persian television programs.

But because of the restrictions of the Telegram and Instagram platforms along with Iranian censorship driving users back to the BBCs own platform isnt necessarily a priority. Instead, Khodabakhshi said BBC Persians goal was to make as much information readily available as possible.

After President Donald Trump last month issued his executive order banning citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries including Iran BBC Persian went to work explaining the ban and its implications on each of its main platforms.

We had to put the news in bullet points and push them on Telegram so people knew what is the latest and how Iranians are affected by this executive order, Khodabakhshi said. BBC Persian also visualized it and post it on Instagram without necessarily thinking that we need to have a referral back to our website, even though we have a detailed explainer on our website. Thats how it works in BBC Persian. We have to serve the audience.

Messaging apps are popular among Iranians because they offer more privacy than more traditional social networks, Khazraee said. (But Telegram and other apps are still vulnerable.)

The beauty of messaging apps is that there is no API that you can go get user information from the system, he said. The max you might be able to do is to crawl all messages that are sent through a channel that is public, but you cant get much information about who is using these channels. This is hard for us as researchers because its extremely hard to study this environment, but its extremely effective in terms of preserving users privacy.

BBC Persian approaches Telegram slightly differently than Instagram and other social platforms. Though it shares video and other features on Telegram, the apps chat interface helps BBC Persian view Telegram primarily as a breaking news tool, Khodabakhshi said. It sends about 20 messages per day.

When stories break, itll post news on Telegram and then also solicit comments and user-generated content as well, taking advantage of the less-public nature of the apps.

We have received hundreds of messages on Telegram about people who have been trapped somewhere, Iranians who have been traveling, those who were really concerned about the impact of the executive order on their lives. It has helped us give a more human personal flavor to our coverage. Not only for BBC Persian, but for the wider BBC as well.

Ultimately, Khodabakhshi said BBC Persian is committed to publishing online to reach audiences in Iran, and it will continue to adapt as platforms and access changes in the country.

We have always had to have contingency plans, Plan Bs, she said. If they shut down this platform, if they filter this platform if they block Telegram, for example, all together, what would be our Plan B? Were basically all the time on our toes.

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How BBC Persian is using Instagram and Telegram to get around Iranian censorship - Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard