To Censor or Not to Censor

“In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive language and behavior. In other countries, there is little or no censorship.”

In your view, to what extent should government or any other group be able to censor television or radio programs? Explain, giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your position.

In order to comment on the extent a government or any other group be able to censor television or radio programs, we need to understand the thought process that may go behind the idea of censorship and see how justified it is.

I can see two basic dimensions to censorship.

Firstly, people in general and societies in particular are resistant to change and different ideas. If anything goes or seems to go against their beliefs, way of living, religious beliefs, sexual beliefs; they tend to react negatively against it. The intensity may be low or high. The protests witnessed against Danish cartoons, Da Vinci Code and paintings of M. F. Hussein are typical examples of how people can react to expressions they feel go against their beliefs. The same thing applies to views on sexuality, society, social order and behavior. In cliche, what is sauce for gander may not be sauce for geese. In these cases governments may tend to use censorship to avoid trouble or simply to build on a vote-bank.

For this case my approach would not be censorship but freedom with responsibility. In principle I believe in what Voltaire said,"I may not agree with you but I will defend your right to say it". However such freedom has to be enjoyed responsibly. Programmes can be rated for age and people can decide what they want to watch and what they do not want to watch. All adult human beings who have come of age should be free to decide what is good for them. Government has no business in poking its nose in civil liberties and moral policing. That being said, this freedom cannot be abused to incite malicious hatred and propaganda against any community or the nation.

Another dimension to censorship is the idea of a nation. Nations are political concepts made to promote stability and prevent wars. No piece of land proclaims itself to be America, Europe or Asia. At the end of the day nationhood is a man-made idea and national boundaries are man-made boundaries. Having said that, the concept is necessary to maintain peace and order in the world. Nations try to preserve themselves and sometimes try to undermine others. One of the tools to do this is propaganda. Nations will try to block such propaganda using censorship. Nations need to be free to use censorship to stop propaganda from enemy countries. I think this is justified as if this is not done, propaganda can affect the process of nation-building and cause instability and hardships for a lot of people in the long run.

Summarizing, censorship may be needed to block out malicious propaganda and hate campaigns. Barring that modern, liberated society has no place for censorship. It just needs to enjoy this freedom in a responsible manner.