Pragyan Shrestha
GP 2 31st march, 2008
How desirable is censorship?
Most people think that censoring materials is going against people’s right to information and press but in some cases censorship is unavoidable. Censorship is the suppression or deletion of material which may be considered objectionable, harmful or sensitive, as determined by a censor. But it is an arguable topic on who gets to censor materials and the criteria for a material not to be censored. Mainly censorship is done on three bases: materials regarding national security, liable materials which can damage an individual’s or a firm’s dignity and reputation and finally material that is obscene materials such as pornography.
When it comes down to the security of a nation from attacks by terrorist and other countries, it is obvious that the material which put it in jeopardy is bound to be censored. Materials like maps of secret location like the Whitehouse and other government areas of most of the countries are censored on Google earth and out of reach of the local population because it provides an easy access for the terrorists as they will be able to view those places and plan their attacks. Other official papers also like of those of research done by a country and military tactics is censored because the linkage of the information may turn out to be a huge problem for a country. So these types of censoring are justified and are reasonable. But when the government holds back secret information which they think will start a revolution and the people will rebel against the government isn’t the correct use of censorship as the citizens of the country have the right to know what is happening and show their feeling and thoughts towards what the government of doing with the country. This type of censorship is usually seen in Middle Eastern countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia.