Restraining the News - The States General and Newspaper Censorship in the Dutch Republic (1700-1750)
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2025-02-17
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
During the first half of the eighteenth century, the States General received complaints from all corners of Europe about newspapers published in the Dutch Republic. Diplomats, regents and princes from Moscow, Vienna, Darmstadt and Stockholm all wrote to the States General asking them to take measures against newspapers published in the Dutch Republic. Such complaints were an effective way to exert pressure on the States General and were therefore often a first step towards censorship measures. With the aid of the newly digitized resolutions of the States General (made available by the REPUBLIC project), this thesis offers a first comprehensive overview of all complaints lodged at the States General and the censorship measures that followed. To highlight these two facets, this thesis is structured into two chapters. The first chapter examines the origin and frequency of the complaints lodged at the States General. In total, 81 unique complaints can be distinguished for the years 1700-1750. Although all major newspapers in the Dutch Republic were the cause of one or more complaints, two newspapers stand out: the Gazette D’Leyden was complained about the most (10 times), followed by the Amsterdamse Courant (9 times). The pan-European distribution of newspapers published in the Dutch Republic meant that both French and Dutch-language newspapers were the cause of numerous complaints from a wide variety of locations within Europe. Nevertheless, three areas stand out as disproportionate complainers: Russia, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. Complaints lodged by Russian ambassadors predominantly focus on newspaper articles that violated the honour of the Tsar (later Emperor) of Russia. Conversely, complaints originating from the Holy Roman Empire span a much broader variety of issues, such as religion, trade and politics. This stark difference can be explained by the decentralised political patchwork that made up the Holy Roman Empire, where every political entity had to advocate for its own interests. The second chapter of this thesis tracks the manner in which complaints lodged at the States General traversed through the political institutions of the Dutch Republic. Most complaints travelled from the States General to the States of Holland. The States of Holland, in turn, forwarded the complaints to the burgomasters of the city in which the newspaperman resided. Punishments were often left up entirely to the burgomasters. This led to a wide variety of censorship measures: newspaper publishers were reprimanded, ordered to retract passages, insert corrections and banned from publishing their newspaper. Retractions and corrections were the most popular form of punishment, since they afforded the complaining ambassador a tangible result whilst at the same time preserving the relationship between the city council and the newspaper publisher. Crucially, many of these retractions and corrections were completely integrated in the text, making them practically invisible to ordinary newspaper readers. Furthermore, the periodical nature of newspapers meant that such censorship could take place for prolonged periods of time. This allowed diplomats from all over Europe to subtly steer the content of the Republic’s periodical press and distinguishes newspaper censorship from other forms of early modern censorship.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren