Media Censorship Essay Example

Censorship is a situation whereby an individual or a group of people decides that certain
materials should not be watched or even read. People who favor censorship say that if certain books are banned then other people will be protected. This is because they think that those books that are necessary to ban could be of bad influence or could be at a position to corrupt the minds of readers. As for those that are opposed to banning of books in regards to censorship, they say that it is a way of violating the rights of fellow human beings by denying them freedom of expression (Magoon, 2009).

In the constitution of U.S, the first amendment guarantees its citizens freedom of
expression and speech. This means that writers can write down articles with subjects of their own choice, newspapers are free to criticize the government and citizens can talk about anything as there is no problem. However, not all nations are given such freedom. There are nations that citizens are not allowed to criticize its government and freedom of worship is not allowed. This means that some nations do not allow their citizens to worship differently from the faith that the government practices (Magoon, 2009).

There is a press concept that Americans had expressed years back; “the men who
established the American Republic sought censorship of the government by the press rather than the censorship of the press by the government” stated one of the journalists at the time, Alan Barth. Nevertheless, since the inception of the press, the media has been the target for censorship. It is clear that although censorship is supposed to do away with stories that are naughty, press censorship primarily consists of doing away with the embarrassing truth. The press, being the universal mother to all media, has become vulnerable to the power of the government when it comes to telling about secrets of the State (Foerstel, 1998).

References
Foerstel, H. N. (1998). Banned in the media: a reference guide to censorship in the press, motion pictures, broadcasting, and the Internet. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Magoon, K. (2009). Media Censorship. Minneapolis, U.S: ABDO.