Suppression of intellectual freedom

Culture is often a field of political struggle. Totalitarian governments tend to control cultural activities so as to avoid public expression of hostile attitudes or criticism of the regime they represent. They do so by curtailing intellectual freedom in various ways: by tightening control over intellectuals and universities, by restricting publication of works by dissident authors, by the dissolution of writers', actors', journalists' and artists' unions; and by any other move liable to still the expression of any opposition.

A recent example was in Spring 1984, when Poland was reported to be tightening control over intellectuals amid concern about the continued reluctance of academics, writers and others in professional and cultural fields to go along with government policies.