Censorship as the Supervision of Harmful Information - Essay Example

Censorship Generally, censorship exists in many societies and it has prevailed in our societies for centuries. In simple terms, censorship is the supervision or suppression of harmful or sensitive information or filthy materials from reaching the public. In some countries, censorship is seen as a way of interfering with the citizens’ right to free speech. The media, individuals’ conversations, films and music among others can be controlled. From my personal perspective, I propose that censorship refers to the control and supervision of the information, opinions and ideas that are reaching the public. Ideally, the bodies giving censorship to books, films, and music, radio or television programs and artistic expression ensure that the information they think is unacceptable to the members of the public and threatens the socio economic and political order of the state has been altered. Specific bodies like the government, religious body or even privet groups are capable to impose censorship on artworks, film, music, and television and radio programs among others. Various forms of censorship exist namely, preventative which is done before publishing the expression, licensing, prior restraint by the government, self-censorship, and punitive censorship usually done after the publication of the material. Basically, in most cases, it is done to protect the public from filthy materials or information especially the children. Some individuals are against censorship as they argue that it deprives them their right to be freely express themselves. Censorship can be done in order to uphold the societal moral values like in the case of censorship to pornography films. Moreover, the stability of the state and the togetherness of people in a nation can be maintained or protected wherever there is censorship to media to reconsider the information they are distributing to individuals. Individuals’ comments and opinions should be watched to make sure that their speech do not create tension and hatred among other citizens, and television or radio stations can be sanctioned when they air indecent materials. Therefore, a person would like to know if it is allowed for the countries that allow freedom of speech to censor people, the media, certain films or even particular music lyrics. In the United States, right to free speech has been clearly provided by First Amendment of the Constitution. Therefore, freedom of expression and right to free speech correlate and so people should be entitled to freely express themselves whether in television, forums or in any form of artwork. Artists have however, claimed that their creativity and art have been somehow negatively interfered with the so called censorship. According to some artists, censorship has restricted creative expression since one has to limit and revise their materials without being displayed to the whole public. But still artists, individuals and other media personalities can entertain people and transmit the intended message without any indecent or coarse words. The following are examples of censorship from my personal experience, from the article by Inglis called, “The Ed Sullivan Show” and from a general perspective. To start with, when I was about twelve years old, my parents were very keen on which channel I was watching, which programs I was listening to, and the peers I was hanging out with. This to them was a way of ensuring that I learn good manners and be a responsible person in future. For this reason, they censored almost everything in my life and even at school, teachers tended to do the same arguing it was for our own good. I would argue that, yes there are certain words, music that cannot be aired in popular radio stations where they can be heard by everyone including the innocent children. However, today there are many programs that demand for particular audience. For instance, at the beginning of certain programs, there are indicated PG to block children from watching or listening to them or parents are advised to guide their children in the program being displayed and let them watch only what is suitable for them. Parents can as well mentor their children good manners and behave appropriately whenever they are watching or listening to acceptable programs. Parents are very protective of their children and as such, they will never allow their children to be exposed to filthy materials. Following the Inglis “The Ed Sullivan Show” article, censorship is vivid and the Doors, as a group of music were censored due to the information they revealed to the public with their music. The Doors, a group from Los Angeles produced "Light My Fire" which was one of the great hit singles in 1967. As opposed to the group’s first single hit called "Break on Through", this second hit rocked the united states as it topped the singles charts for three weeks after its release. However, the doors had been left out to perform at the Monterey Pop Festival and they defended themselves saying that their music expressed a very different attitude from the occasion’s attitude which they described as peace, love and flower power. According to one of the group members, they represented the shadow side in their music and this was unsuitable for the festival. More so, CBS was interested to book an appointment with the group to attend The Ed Sulli­van Show, considering the fact that the joining the chart success and West Coast activity will actually attract large audience. Before rehearsing for the show, the group was addressed by pro­ducer Bob Precht to edit a particular line due to its reference to drug taking and they did so during the rehearsal. However, during performance, the doors the live performance of the show, they changed the original lyrics emphasizing the offending lines. This really made Precht to be furious shouting at the group. But the door used the incident to confirm the confrontational nature of their music and they never appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show again. Following this incident, several concerts organized by the group were terminated or halted by the police to protect the general public. Accordingly, Morrison, one of the group members, was arrested quite often while driving when drunk or due to his obscene performance. He was jailed and sentenced to jail due to indecency in public after going to a concert in Florida and exposing his privet part to the public. Even though there are successful censorships, there are censorships that have failed for instance, the "wardrobe malfunction" on February 1, 2004 that happened during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII had. At the climax of the song, part of the top of Janet Jackson was ripped off exposing her breast and immediately, about 500,000 complaints were made over CBS. As such, the FCC responded to this act immediately by fining the network $500,000. This triggered more restrictions, PG, on the television. Nudity revealed quite often in soap operas which was initially viewed as appropriate was edited out, and many half time shows for other sporting events were abolished. In conclusion censorship is real but do not allow the heated debate on censorship which will never stop, to restrict many entertainment materials. However, the kids should be aware that upon reaching the age of eighteen, the parents do not have to censor anything they do, watch or even listen to. On the other hand, I think the children should be exposed to some of these ‘improper’ contents of the media to enable them make wise decisions early and face the consequences and try to overcome them. Basically, censorship is always done to protect minors from pornography, protect important governmental information and to promote moral values and standards in the society.   Read More