My degree in Media Studies rests on a thesis on censorship so I had to watch this one, but it immediately becomes clear that the director - as much as an effort he makes - didn't do his research. It never fails to amaze me how rarely social science documentaries address literature, of which there is plenty in regard to censorship. So the first major mistake of this film is to not present an overview, a starting point. Like, all governments at all times have tried to exert information control, the word "censor" itself goes all the way back to the Roman Empire.
Instead, the director uses footage of a right-wing rally to ask whether there could be a "good" censorship to filter away events like that. Ouch, that totally misses the point. All information is censored to a certain degree. As for his interviews, it's not that Fossum isn't prepared - he's just too nice all the time. For a subject like this, you have to be tenacious and aggressive in a friendly way. He interviews Chinese editors who present distorted but totally convinced opinions, but then fails to push the subject (by asking why the "real" footage of Tiananmen is just as forbidden as the "wrong" Western one or whether Tibet's feudal state was a justification for invasion, and whether the Tibetans are really happy about the Chinese outnumbering them). Only in Iran he manages to get some useful info, but I've been there, the people are exceptionally eager to communicate, even if they disagree with you.
Only at the end, when faced with the stonewalling of American institutions, Fossum seems to realize that his film is a failure because his approach was wrong. He understands that when officials in other countries talked to him, they served their own interest, while the Americans simply don't give a darn. He sorta admits this via a defeatist voice-over. But instead of starting all over, or at least announcing that, he capitulates. So this is an interesting failure about a mega-important topic which gives you a glimpse of what a huge and underrated subject censorship is.