Censorship
On the fence
Definition
Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet or other controlling body.
The Issue
Many people seem to have an issue with censorship, but there are, as with anything good points and bad points to censorship whether it be done by the government, social media, media companies or other regulatory bodies.
Good Points
Censorship has benefits that it can offer to people, such as providing a barrier to certain visual and print texts and various types of media. This barrier can protect young children from being exposed to elements of life that they may not be ready to experience, which is a good thing. Censorship can also, although it may seem like a bad point, control an provide a barrier to certain types of information and media that people of an older age are exposed to such as certain details about wartime conflicts, etc. Censorship can also provide governments and other regulatory bodies with control over the information about them that the public is exposed to such as private confidential information that should only be available to the highest levels of authority within the organisation or government.
Bad Points
Censorship however, can often lead to a breach of freedom of information rights, it can also lead to the banning of certain authors or book series in certain countries or areas of that country and can limit the type of media that the public in certain areas are exposed to. Such as the widespread banning of JK Rowling's "Harry Potter" series in the USA for a number of years because certain themes within the books offended people. this type of censoring is ridiculous and should not be allowed.
Censoring of information about companies and governments should also be restricted as they should remain as transparent as possible, because if there is nothing to hide, then why censor the information that is provided.
Still Undecided
Censoring is something that will remain a debated topic for many years to come. There is definitely a time and a place for censoring but then there is also examples within certain countries where censoring has taken a whole new spin on ridiculous. So, it is a personal choice as to whether you support censoring or whether you are against it.