Music Censorship and Freedom of Expression : Is China’s Lady Gaga Ban a Violation of Her Human Rights?

Abstract

The thesis explores music censorship and freedom of expression, using a case study of the bans of Lady Gaga’s music in China. The hypothesis under which this research lies is that the discourse on music censorship does not demonstrate sufficient understanding of freedom of expression (particularly, as understood in international human rights law), which has a detrimental effect on musicians, who, due to their unawareness of the right, are unable to assert it. The case study of the bans of Lady Gaga’s music explores whether the bans could be deemed as having amounted to a violation of her freedom of expression. Since I did not find a compelling analysis of both music censorship and freedom of expression, nor any material suggesting that one of the biggest pop celebrities may have had her freedom of expression violated, I was hoping to offer some discussion on these topics.