Ban Culture.

The campaigns on social media against the government's decision to ban the critically-acclaimed film Joyland have resulted in the decision being overturned. This is positive news, particularly because the film was being targeted through a concerted attack by groups that claimed that the film was against Islamic norms. This false notion has already been addressed in a previous editorial, but the reversal of the ban does not mean that the problem of criticising art under the guise of social or religious norms has been countered effectively. Even now, there are troubling unverified reports that the Punjab government is going ahead with the ban even after the film was cleared by the board. This indicates how deep the problem goes.

Joyland has thankfully not joined the long list of films that were made for Pakistan by Pakistanis and yet not screened here because of some controversy over decency and norms-which is almost always purported and not based on any fact. The problem here is that this is not the last time something like this will happen. The culture of finding fault in films and believing that the censor board or the authorities have not...