Özet:

The main purpose of this study is to examine the Ottoman State’s military censorship practices regarding cinema during World War I. In this respect, the study evaluates inspections of cinema, legal bases of censorship and inspection, censorship organization in Istanbul, and decisions made for alterations in practices related to censorship during the war years. Mobilization practices started with the influence of extraordinary circumstances on all belligerents when World War I broke out. The Ottoman government published a censorship regulation stating that communications and the press would be censored and that censorship centers would be established at various places through the Ministry of War. In accordance with the regulation, censorship would be applied to the press, communications, postal packets, books and booklets, and cinema and theatre. The military censorship practices regarding cinema were shaped according to Article 59 of the regulation. Accordingly, getting permission from the Censorship General Inspectorate (Sansür Müfettiş-i Umumiliği) in İstanbul and the Censorship Inspectorates in the country was made obligatory in order to show all the film strips and theatres and plays being released for the first time. However, this application changed after a while due to the workload on the Inspectorships, and the decision was made to have cinema censorship be implemented by the police force. The main sources of the research are the documents in the Ottoman Archive of the Presidency and the Askerî Tarih ve Stratejik Etüt (ATASE) [Military History and Strategic Research] Archive of the General Staff.

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