At approximately 1.30 am in the night of 11-12 September 1939 two police officers walked into the offices of the Daily Mail with instructions to seize all of its early editions. This action was repeated at newspaper offices and wholesale newsagents across the United Kingdom.

New findings from our project have shown how this became a defining moment for British censorship during the Second World War.

To find out more, see this article on The Conversation >>

To read the full findings, see this post on the History of Government blog >>

We are also live tweeting extracts from a Parliamentary debate about censorship that was held on that was held on 13 September 1939.

To find out more, follow @moidigital on Twitter >> and look out for #moidebate >>


The Institute of English Studies is hosting a two day conference on censorship 6-7 November 2014. Registration is now open via http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/ies-conferences/ForbiddenAccess