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Programa de saúde : a case of book censorship during the Brazilian military dictatorship

Some documents produced by the government during the Brazilian military dictatorship have been made available for reference, including censors’ reports on television and radio programs, plays, films, songs, advertisements and printed matter. Of the 500 or so reports on books, there is one that vetoes Programa de saúde: projetos e temas de higiene e saúde, an educational work that proposed actions to help students understand their sanitary conditions and acquire knowledge about health and health-promoting habits in this area. The argument for vetoing it was that the information could fall into the hands of poorly trained teachers, who could distort its content, causing serious damage to Brazilian youth. In this report we see evidence of the obscurantist, elitist posture adopted by the Department of Censorship of Public Entertainment, which aimed to restrict the circulation of information and curb debate.

public health; sanitation; hygiene; military dictatorship; Brazil


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