Censorship Limits Freedom of Speech
Censorship is the control of communication between people. This includes restrictions on what can be seen and heard. Mostly, censorship is practiced by Governments. But religious and political leaders and special interest groups also try to control the flow of information. Censorship violates individual rights, hides useful information, and limits freedom of speech.
The four major types of censorship are moral, military, political, and religious. The most common type is moral censorship which restricts obscene material. Moral censorship tries to mainly protect children from corruption. The problem with moral censorship is the narrowing definition of obscenity.
Military censorship occurs mainly in wartime, and is used to protect national security. Military censors have the authority to read the mail of service men and women. The censors can hold information from the press as well. Political censorship is used by governments that do not accept opposing ideas. "Democracies do not officially permit censorship, but many try to censor radical ideas".
Religious censorship happens in countries where the government is close to a religion or where religious feeling run high. Individual rights are written in the Bill of Rights section of the Constitution.
The first amendment grants the freedom of the press, speech, and religion. The first amendment also grants that the media is immune from
government control or censorship. A way to preserve individual rights is for government agencies to have little or no interaction with individual persons. For example, by police examining personal information. One act which violates individual rights is the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. The act makes it legal for police to legally read e-mail and access personal information held by Internet Service Providers. The act was created before the Internet was ever put to use on a wide scale. The act violates individual rights because it allows authorities access to censor material from the recipients of the e-mail.
The main censorship that hides useful information is moral censorship. Moral censorship hides information that can help people learn about different ideas and alternative lifestyles. Moral censorship is used to protect children. Restricting obscene material only makes it harder and more desirable to obtain it. Obscene material was once restricted for most of the country. In this day and age, a majority of small town convenience stores carry literature which is deemed as obscene. Material that is considered obscene to others may be useful to some.
One of the main themes of the novel Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. Censorship is n: the action of a censor esp. in stopping the transmission or publication of matter considered objectionable. That is, of course, according to the guys over at Merriam-Webster.
Censorship, as defined in the dictionary, is, in the case of a book, to take out things thought to be objectionable. Censorship is far more than that. This mere word prohibits us from all things
Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.
"Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself." The basic rights guaranteed to Americans in the Bill of Rights is what holds the United States together. When Salman Rushdie wrote Guardian, he knew this. Unfortunately, the majority of congress and the President himself have forgotten the basic rights of Americans. When President William J. Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act that was proposed but the 104th Congress, he severely limited the rights of Americans on the Internet. The internet, just like books, magazines, artwork, and newspapers, should not be censored.
The First Amendment guarantees that congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. U.S. CONST. amend. I. The courts have heeded the First Amendment’s underlying values in order to determine whether or not recording police officers is a freedom of the press and have answered in the affirmative; they have firmly established that the First Amendment extends further and encompasses a range of conduct related to receiving information and ideas. Glik v. Cunniffe, 655 F.3d 78, 82 (1st Cir. 2011). The Supreme Court has observed that the First Amendment protects the right to gather news from any source by means within the law. See id.at 82.
The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" (First Amendment Oct. 20, 2013). But "the First Amendment does not protect all speech from government censorship, and it does not prevent private non-government entities from censoring. Years of US Supreme Court decisions have identified exceptions to the general rule that the governments in the United States cannot censor" (Censorship Copyright © 2002). American citizen's right of freedom of speech should be held in the highest integrity and any kind of censorship of free speech should not be allowed because it take away those rights. However, censorship has been going on for centuries.
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
Censorship is the suppression of publishing information on the Internet or television (Naik). The government blocks only the content that is proved to be unfit for the public. Censorship is only used to a certain extent in the United States of America, but it is much more widespread in other parts of the world. Many people argue that the First Amendment to the constitution provides freedom of speech. Therefore, fining television stations for not censoring explicit materials could be a violation First Amendment rights (Ruschmann). Most people agree that the reason that the United States survives as a democracy is because of the freedoms provided by the First Amendment. With these freedoms revoked, the government could become too controlling (Ruschmann). Censorship also occurs when politicians commit crimes and feel threatened by the media. Political Censorship is unjust to the public because stories about the citizens can be posted on the Internet, and played on the news yet, the citizens have no control over this public display (Censorship).
Censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts. Which parts are considered unacceptable, depends entirely on the person viewing them. One person may censor violence, nudity, and certain types of language on television, while another may block the comments section on their social media page. All censorship consists of taking something,
Topic: Do you believe that free speech as proscribed under the first amendment of the constitution should be limited?
Censorship according to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press can be defined as, “To remove anything offensive from books, films, etc., or to remove parts considered unsuitable from private letters, especially ones sent during war or from a prison”(Cambridge Dictionary). Censorship in the news and in the media takes many forms in todays fast paced world. Even with the slightly leak in information or even misleading information could cause todays world to be turned on its head and can cause people to interpret the issue in many ways which could have numerous implications. This is why such information is filtered by some governments around the world before it is aired or printed. There are countless arguments as to why or why not information should be censored as each individual is entitled to their own opinion. Censorship impacts people ability to choose freely as it is controls ideas and thoughts and thus influences their freedom of expression or their to express their views on issues, ideologies or even practice their faith.
Censorship allows governments more control of society than they already have, slowly progressing governments utilizing censorship to a dictatorship. Often times, this censorship can lead to immense rebellions. A good example of this is in China, where Google has been censored by a provider called The Great Firewall of China, which censors information that could be viewed as defamatory or insulting to Chinese government and culture. According to the article “Google turns off China censorship warning” as published by BBC News Technology, “Google has had a rocky relationship with the Chinese authorities since January 2010, when the company said it may shut down Chinese operations due to a ‘sophisticated and targeted’ cyber attack. Google said at the time that it was no longer willing to censor the Google search engine”. Many journalists have also taken a look at Egypt, which also utilizes censorship. According to “Egyptian authorities step up censorship” as published by the Committee to Protect Journalists website, the new military-run Egyptian government is censoring news outlets and keep journalists, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates. “Egyptia...
Ever wondered the reason behind racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, children committing crime or violence? The main reason is that censorship is not properly imposed or there is a need of censorship in the society. Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain people, individual, groups or government officials find it objectionable, offensive or dangerous on others. There are varieties of other definitions but all have in common the concept of withholding information and/or resources from those who seek it. Hence censorship is essential in society to eliminate discrimination on basis of race and sex, protect children, maintain stability and restore what censor sees as lost moral values. Censorship occurs when expressive materials like books, magazines, movies, videos, music or work of art are restricted to particular audiences based on their age or other characteristics. (http://www.ala.org/oif/intellectualfreedeomandcensorship.html)
Censorship is blocking or hiding something that is considered unacceptable to the public eye or a group of a certain age. In looking at the effects of censorship on society, it is apparent that it can both be beneficial and harmful. Censorship is seen to be beneficial through preventing dangerous people from viewing government documents and preventing children from viewing inappropriate content. Censorship can be harmful when it comes to taking away rights declared in the Constitution and setting unequal standards for men and women. These examples show how effects censorship has on society can be both good and bad. Looking at facts and credible opinions is a way to truly see how censorship has negative and positive effects.
Censorship affects our society in many different ways, it affects the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the books we read, and many other aspects of our everyday lives. Even though many might argue that censorship doesn't really have a place in a society that emphases freedom of speech and the freedom to express oneself, but censorship is an essential and needed part of our growing society, it's needed in the television industry, the Internet, and the music industry. Censorship helps to make our world a better place because it creates a better environment for us to live in.