Perceptions of threats to national security have always been the basis for governments to enter the business of what, in 1900, was called ‘censorship’ of person to person communications and what, today, we call surveillance. The first direct intervention came during the Boer War in 1900, was expanded during the First World War and formed the basis of current policy. This article looks at the introduction of ‘censorship’ of electrical communications in time of war and compares the current position to the past. It concludes that the major differences between the early years of the telegraph and today are the invasiveness of the technologies and the international institutionalization of surveillance. Although some theorists have argued that the internationalization of communications has eroded the power of the state, the article concludes that power has shifted away from domestic and international non-state civic opposition groups to increased state control.
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