Cencorship

2 Pages 587 Words

“Censorship, is it ever justified?”

Censorship in many ways consists of any attempt to suppress information, points of view, or method of expression. There are however circumstances when censorship is needed in order to maintain the status quo and/or to control the development of a society. In a society such as ours today, censorship is needed to protect us from our selves.

I think that censorship is justified under certain circumstances. One example of this justification would be during a time of war. It is the governments responsibility to secure the lives of their soldiers and therefore it is important that they can control the flow of information concerning their tactical moves. Another instance where censorship is justified is during the news coverage of disasters, terrorist or natural. Here I think that dead, mutilated people should not be shown. In many Islamic countries it is normal that the dead bodies are shown on tv, but I think it is tasteless and disrespectful towards the deceased.

Being exposed to acts of violence, blood shed, and destruction must have a psychological effect on people. Therefore if censorship did not exist the percentage of unlawful, violent acts would increase. People would become desensitized and they would loose their sense of reality. Imagine if someone was exposed to footage of dead people all day, every day. If then that person was confronted with an actual dead body it would not shock him and/or it would not even seem strange to him.

Another sector that requires strict censorship is hardcore pornography. These films portray women as objects of lust, sometimes meat, that are there to use and abuse. Studies have showed that more than ninety percent of convicted felons rate hardcore pornography as one of their favorite past times. Being exposed to violent, descending behavior over longer periods of time often causes people to think behaving in that way is acceptable....