Is
“
redact
” or “
censor ” the same thing?
Before the era of
“cancel culture
”
, with its debunking or desecration of statues, paintings, its rewriting of books in the name of “
political correctness
”, censorship and the disappearance of works of art or literature already existed.
We think in particular of the French Revolution which was a period of destruction of all symbols reminiscent of the monarchy.
At the same time, books were also cut up, scratched and mutilated.
The idea was to make a “clean slate”.
If they were not burned, many of these works were "
redacted
", that is, they were covered with black ink in several passages.
To discover
Crosswords, Sudoku, 7 Letters... Keep your mind alert with Le Figaro Games
But where does the word “
redaction
” come from?
The term has been attested since the beginning of the 20th century and takes its name from the figurative expression “
to pass to caviar
”, indicates the Office Québécois de la langue française.
This expression would come from a similarity between the black color of caviar, a dish originating from Russia, and the black spots made with ink, frequently used to censor texts at the time of Tsar Nicholas I.
For your next social evenings, you will be able to teach your interlocutors that the verb “
caviarder
” is indirectly derived from the luxury gourmet food.
Also read: The six spelling rules that make us doubt the most
“Redaction”, a form of “self-censorship”
An example: part of the correspondence between Marie-Antoinette and Count Fersen was redacted.
The letters were not destroyed, however certain skillful hands took care to conceal their most intimate secrets by redacting them, that is to say by hiding the parts which could have compromised them by writing on top of them. the black ink of tightened curls.
For this, the ink chosen to hide this information was black and absorbed most of the visible light, so that it was impossible to recover the underlying information, whatever the optical technique used.
However, researchers have recently been able to decipher the hidden passages.
“
Redacting
” therefore means “
deleting by crossing out with black ink the passages of a writing prohibited by the censor
” (CNRTL), before the dissemination or transmission of the document in question.
Unlike censorship, which is more general, redaction only applies to writings.
“
Censoring
” corresponds to the fact of “
blaming, severely criticizing a person, their actions, their works
” (CNRTL).
Recently, we heard about Wikipedia pages that have been
“redacted”,
like that of Laurent Wauquiez or former MP Laetitia Avia.
We are not talking about censorship strictly speaking, but about passages modified and rewritten - and not written in black ink as in the past, as you can imagine.
And this with a very specific aim: to paint a more glowing portrait of their person or to remove certain elements deemed embarrassing...