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Commentary on: Legislation on Censorship and Printing during and after the Struensee intermezzo (1770-1773)

Jakobsen, Jesper LU and Evju, Håkon (2023)
Abstract
Danish and Norwegian legislation concerning censorship and print changed dramatically in the years between 1770 and 1773, following three distinct royal orders issued during and shortly after the German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee’s time in power at the Danish court. The Order of 14 September 1770 abolished, with one swift stroke, the old system of pre-publication censorship by expert readers, and set in motion the world’s most radical experiment in press freedom. Soon, however, Struensee discovered that this experiment was not to his advantage and on 7 October 1771 another royal order restricted press freedom, emphasizing that authors needed to stay within the bounds of law and clamping down on the use of anonymity. Still,... (More)
Danish and Norwegian legislation concerning censorship and print changed dramatically in the years between 1770 and 1773, following three distinct royal orders issued during and shortly after the German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee’s time in power at the Danish court. The Order of 14 September 1770 abolished, with one swift stroke, the old system of pre-publication censorship by expert readers, and set in motion the world’s most radical experiment in press freedom. Soon, however, Struensee discovered that this experiment was not to his advantage and on 7 October 1771 another royal order restricted press freedom, emphasizing that authors needed to stay within the bounds of law and clamping down on the use of anonymity. Still, conditions continued to be favorable for both authors and printers until Struensee’s downfall in January 1772 and the ensuing reaction. In a third royal order, on 20 October 1773, a new regime of post-publication censorship was put in place, which, combined with a deterring show trial, put an end to the press freedom experiment in Denmark-Norway. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Other contribution
publication status
published
subject
publisher
Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
project
The Scoundrel Years: Scandinavian impudence of the press and print industry, c. 1760-1800
Slyngelåren: Skandinavisk tryckfräckhet och boktryckerinäring ca 1760–1800
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Bently & Kretschmer (eds), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) (www.copyrighthistory.org)
id
db631229-b04a-4e9f-9489-b0bb2f70a810
alternative location
https://www.copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=commentary_sc_1770
date added to LUP
2024-01-18 13:43:38
date last changed
2024-04-10 16:29:36
@misc{db631229-b04a-4e9f-9489-b0bb2f70a810,
  abstract     = {{Danish and Norwegian legislation concerning censorship and print changed dramatically in the years between 1770 and 1773, following three distinct royal orders issued during and shortly after the German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee’s time in power at the Danish court. The Order of 14 September 1770 abolished, with one swift stroke, the old system of pre-publication censorship by expert readers, and set in motion the world’s most radical experiment in press freedom. Soon, however, Struensee discovered that this experiment was not to his advantage and on 7 October 1771 another royal order restricted press freedom, emphasizing that authors needed to stay within the bounds of law and clamping down on the use of anonymity. Still, conditions continued to be favorable for both authors and printers until Struensee’s downfall in January 1772 and the ensuing reaction. In a third royal order, on 20 October 1773, a new regime of post-publication censorship was put in place, which, combined with a deterring show trial, put an end to the press freedom experiment in Denmark-Norway.}},
  author       = {{Jakobsen, Jesper and Evju, Håkon}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge}},
  title        = {{Commentary on: Legislation on Censorship and Printing during and after the Struensee intermezzo (1770-1773)}},
  url          = {{https://www.copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=commentary_sc_1770}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}