Abstract

Theatre and cinema State censorship in Italy reaches the present time from the late 19th century. It evolved from a decentralized institutional model – entrusted to prefectures – to a centralized system in the hands of ministerial bureaucracy in Rome. Rules and prohibitions survived after two world wars, the birth and end of fascism, the advent of the Republic. Many were the key people. Prefects, officials of local and central administration, but also heads of government, ministers and undersecretaries. From Crispi, Giolitti, Ciano and Mussolini to Andreotti, Scalfaro, Veltroni – who abolished the theatre censorship in 1998 – and Franceschini, who put an end, retaining only regulations to protect minors, to the cinema one in 2021