Censorship: A Tool for Revoking our Rights and Happiness

Essay by Nelly25mattHigh School, 12th gradeA, March 2007

download word file, 11 pages 5.0

As a little kid, have your parents ever told you that you can't watch a certain show on television or a certain movie? How about not being able to read a book because of its content? How would you react if government controlled things like this, by what certain people find offensive to them, but not necessarily to you? It happens every single day. This is known as censorship. Censorship is the control of human expression, often by (but not limited to) government intervention. Governments around the world use censorship to suppress ideas by criminalizing or regulating expression ("Censorship." Wikipedia 1). It occurs in the United States, it occurs in China, it occurs at home, it occurs everywhere. Books, newspapers, magazines, public speeches, paintings, photographs, films, television programs, songs, and e-mails have all been subject to censorship around the world. The government is too controlling of our personal lives with censorship.

Government censorship is unconstitutional, revokes our rights, suppresses free will, and is harmful to society.

Censorship can be classified into five different types. There is moral censorship, military censorship, political censorship, religious censorship, and corporate censorship. Moral censorship can be defined as any material that contains 'questionable' ethics is removed. The censoring body disapproves of the values behind the material and limits access to it. An example would be pornography. Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential. Military censorship is used to counter espionage. Political censorship is when government conceals secrets from citizens. Government can use political censorship to prevent the free expression needed to revolt. Political censorship is also used to censor anything that the government knows or does, and keeps the information from the public. Democracies do not officially approve of political censorship, but often censor things daily. Religious censorship is...