however, with the wider availability of the printed word, the ability of more
people to read it and the extension of thefranchise. The development of a
mass mediahas inevitably widened the possibilities for censorship. There is
one area, national security, where all countries retain powers of censorship,
through for example the BritishOfficial Secrets Actand its D Notice system,
although in many instances such powers are used little outside times of national
emergency or war. Censorship conflicts with some of the most vital values of
liberal democracy, such as freedoms of speech and the press, but even the
most liberal of states requires some control on what may be published, even if
only because, for example, the rights to privacy and to not be libelled, and the
need to prevent the dissemination of extreme views such as racial hatred, are
also important. Censorship was prevalent under communist rule in the former
Soviet bloc, where states attempted to control completely all publication. Not
only national security matters and political dissent were subject to censorship,
but even the simple reporting of basic news, an air disaster for example, was
often forbidden. Just as the spread of printing and literacy made censorship
politically necessary in non-democratic societies, so communications technol-
ogy made it ultimately futile. Access to photocopiers and computers led to a
flourishing underground press (samizdatin Russian), which could be curtailed
but never completely suppressed. The rapid creation and increasing use of the
internet has made all legal attempts to control broadcasting, even legitimate
ones like the suppression of child pornography, virtually impossible in high-
tech societies.
Central Banks
All states require a central authority to issue valid currency, set interest rates and
exercise supervision over the banking and credit sector of the economy. The
institutions carrying out these tasks are usually referred to as central banks,
though their powers and the degree of their autonomy from other government
institutions vary considerably. The central bank for the United Kingdom, the
Bank of England, was a public institution since its nationalization by the post-
war Labour government in 1946, and since then had been more firmly under
the direct control of the government than most central banks. It was, therefore,
ironic that the first significant act of the incoming Labour government of 1997
was to free the Bank of England from government control. The US Federal
Reserve System is almost entirely independent of the federal government, and
the European Central Bank (ECB) established in 1998 to become the issuing
authority for the euro currency is also totally autonomous. The principal
activities of central banks include the regulation of themoney supply, the
controlling of inflation and the stabilization of the international value of their
currency. Money supply can be influenced either directly or, much more
Central Banks