Censorship In Free Countries

Computers, televisions, and radio are all ways that we can access information, but how much of this information is accurate? Censorship happens all over the world and can range from blocking websites or articles, arresting newscasters and journalists, to killing/ murdering them for writing things that their government deemed unacceptable. It takes away people’s freedoms and rights. It also being used as a means to control people and keep them misinformed. There are some valid reasons for censorship such as parental controls, and withholding information during an ongoing investigation but the misuses of censorship outweigh most, if not all of the beneficial reasons. Therefore, censorship is an abuse of power that should not go unchecked.

Overall governments, organizations, and those in power often times use censorship in order to shelter or hide things from people. For example, when a parent is just doing what is best for their kid and doesn’t just let them do whatever they want. There is always a reason, often times thought to be protection. However it could potentially be more, perhaps manipulation? Whatever may be the reason censorship will remain a vastly used form of restriction that some may just need to learn to

Imagine a scenario where Kanye West is in his Los Angeles home with his wife and daughter and the police knock on his door. They arrest him based on exposing the American population to vulgarity, indecency, racist and sexist comments that offend many people. The government does not want America to be subjected to this type of music and turn the American culture into something more bigoted than it already is. However, a situation like this would never occur in the present day American society. That does not mean it could not happen in the future. Many American citizens are promoting censorship to an extreme that it could possibly become a reality. The American citizens claim that censorship is needed to shelter America’s citizens, but

Censorship is definitely a thing in a lot of parts of America; however, it’s not all bad censorship. For example, anti-abortion groups protest at public and private colleges using large, noticeable, graphic signs which most either ignore or attempt to take them down by force, which, although it sounds like illegal censorship, is legal because the 1st amendment does not protect provocative speech. In the video, a private college was shown which limited certain groups’ flyers and posters to one corner of the whole campus; they are completely within their rights to do that because they do not receive state funding so the first amendment does not apply to them. Finally, when Charlie Hebdo was attacked, a writer held a “Draw Muhammed” contest in Dallas which led to a shooting and her disappearance. Many people believe the things they do can not be censored because they are protected by the first amendment, but they are not because they are either provoking, the place they are at is not state funded, and people they are intentionally offending are not going to leave them alone.

Censorship is a very powerful method of hiding information for the sake of the nation and protection of the soldiers. It disallows the widespread of terrifying information and images corrupting the minds of people even though that is the reality of war. Censorship is not meant to violate the rights of humans as thought so, rather to keep vital information out of reach from the enemy. Religious sects and groups will not attack or become a threat to Americans if certain information that may seem offending to them is hidden, this way there will be tranquility amongst the nation and the people. Overall, censorship is meant to be a positive method of concealing informational only meant for the military and to avoid conflict between individuals.

Technology has made sharing information incredibly easy; where scandalous or damning information used to wait for magazines or newspaper publishing deadlines, today this information can be shared around the world nearly instantaneously. In the United States censorship is often interchanged with transparency and the need for those in government to remain open and honest. In recent years, transparency in the United States has plummeted, but the discussion often overlooks the analogy of transparency and censorship with many people failing to see that a lack of transparency equates dangerous censorship (DeMersseman, 39). Governments around the world successfully withhold information from their people through censorship, an issue that was particularly

Media censorship is not an unusual phenomenon around the world, as it has been disapproved by right groups since ancient times. It had originated in ancient times when rulers and religious leaders imposed limitation on the press, with an aim to stop them from spreading information which might turn against them, and the activities conducted by them. Regardless of the differences in geographical location, religion, culture and the tradition, the motive for censorship has remained the same. The most widely used methods to control media are licensing and enacting laws which effectively restrict the freedom of press. Countries like Syria, Zimbabwe and Vietnam have laws and regulations that effectively limit the freedom of press and impose

In 1644 John Milton published a prose titled “Areopagitica” which opposed censorship. While he was not fighting for freedom of press he was fighting more for the freedom of the printing press. At the time anything written had to be approved by Parliament before it could be published, he was against that censorship and stated that not knowing was more dangerous than knowing. Milton’s work which pre-dated the issue of the freedom of the press quite a bit laid the groundwork for opposing censorship. I believe he had a point, when you allow too much censorship you essentially put all the power in one group of people’s hands, the ones deciding what to censor. On the other hand, when you ban censorship then a system of checks and balances exists. For example, the new President, Donald Trump has been discussing censoring specific federal agency websites, specifically the EPA’s website on climate change. That sort of censorship is bad. But because of where we live and the fact that we are unaccustomed to censorship everyone began calling him out on it and, for now at least, the website is staying

Media censorship isn’t as effective as it used to be due to the creation of social media. Social media allows everyday citizens to communicate with other people and access various information, even content that the government restricts. This has opened the door to people discussing things such as government conspiracy theories. You would absolutely never see anything on television (made by the government) that talks about things the government is hiding. This is the reason why it’s so difficult for people to control what the

First off some information from the government should not be secured for our safety. Such as invasions from terrorist should be told to citizens for their safety. Citizens should be aware of information from the government. Information such as the JFK assassination should have been told to the citizens earlier in time. Things like that should be told to citizens because they could have been searching for

What is censorship? Censorship means the process to examine a work, a piece of art, etc… in order to suppress or delete any object in it that may seem objectionable or harmful. But why is there censorship? Writing has always been a risky venture, fraught with ethical, political and financial pitfalls. If we look at the history of the world writing, we can see that it is filled with examples of censorship in many aspects ( political, social, personal ) and the authors of those writing have often risked much for the sake of their written words and for the sake of their readers. So is censorship right or wrong? To me, however, I think that there is no clear answer to that question, for censorship has its fair balance of advantages and disadvantages to its certain limit.

Smoke fills the air outside of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as American flags are burned

President Franklin Roosevelt once famously said, “Books cannot be killed by fire.” (“Books are Weapons”). Since books are filled with ideas, no one can burn or ban them; people can burn the pages of books, but the ideas will live forever in the minds of the readers. The act of book burning sourced from censorship. Censorship is the suppression of public communication, whether written or verbal. Government officials, librarians, and even religious organizations censor materials typically, because the materials contain either politically incorrect thoughts, offensive ideas, or subject-sensitive plots. Although it is acceptable for religious groups to censor materials within their groups, it is unacceptable for librarians to censor materials within their library. Librarians should not promote their own beliefs in a library, when purchasing materials.

Censorship is known to be the suppression of media that is considered socially unacceptable, obscene, or just generally unapproved of. Some may say that censorship is necessary in order to avoid hate speech and have an acceptable society for all people. Others may say censorship goes against freedom of speech which is the stance I will be taking while using Michel Foucault’s ethics theory. The basis of Foucault’s ethics overall is that people should be able to practice freedom. Censorship should not be allowed as it violates one of the most basic rights of humans, freedom of speech, it is a means of control, and it makes it difficult for society to progress.

On August 24, 2017 the Huffington Post published a headline, North Korean Censorship. In this article North Korea’s excessive censorship of all information and control of free thinking is discussed. Everything from free thinking to jobs are controlled in North Korea. Their society is much like the futuristic dystopian societies of both Anthem and Fahrenheit 451. In the stories, Fahrenheit 451 and Anthem, the writers Ray Bradbury and Ayn Rand, focus on the restriction of free thinking and knowledge to show that people in a repressed society have a strong eternal yearning to think and learn for themselves.