TITLE: Censorship and Access to Expression (Chapter 24)

AMAZON LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233232091&sr=1-1

QUOTATION: To censor is to restrict or limit access to an expression, portion of an expression, or category of expression, which has been made public by its author, based on the belief that it will be a bad thing if people access the content of that expression.

“Censorship through consensus” is also a real possibility. There are countries where the adherence to a shared social, though not religious, code is a fact of life. Understanding that entails discerning where the boundaries of expression are, and where they might be interfered with in a consensus situation.

LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:

-          I want to know more about Censorship and Access Expression.

-          I want to understand what the interest to access in expression is.

-          I want to know further how this chapter defined censorship.

-          I want to be familiar to the types and harm arguments about censorship.

-          I want to know the importance of censorship.

REACTION:

Censorship — the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society — has been a hallmark of dictatorships throughout history. In the 20th Century, censorship was achieved through the examination of books, plays, films, television and radio programs, news reports, and other forms of communication for the purpose of altering or suppressing ideas found to be objectionable or offensive. The rationales for censorship have varied, with some censors targeting material deemed to be indecent or obscene; heretical or blasphemous; or seditious or treasonous. Thus, ideas have been suppressed under the guise of protecting three basic social institutions: the family, the church, and the state.

One must recognize that censorship and the ideology supporting it go back to ancient times, and that every society has had customs, taboos, or laws by which speech, dress, religious observance, and sexual expression were regulated. In Athens, where democracy first emerged, censorship was well known as a means of enforcing the prevailing orthodoxy. Indeed, Plato was the first recorded thinker to formulate a rationale for intellectual, religious, and artistic censorship. In his ideal state outlined in The Republic, official censors would prohibit mothers and nurses from relating tales deemed bad or evil. Plato also proposed that unorthodox notions about God or the hereafter be treated as crimes and that formal procedures be established to suppress heresy. Freedom of speech in Ancient Rome was reserved for those in positions of authority. The poets Ovid and Juvenal were both banished, and authors of seditious writings were punished severely. The emperor Nero deported his critics and burned their books.

A policy of banning literature and works outweighs the positive effects. Restricting a child’s ability to reach their full intellectual potential is not worth the small chance that the music industry, media, and books can possibly have an effect on a child’s personality, attitude, or behavior. It is also evident that even though schools, churches, the media, parents, and the music industry have the power to control what the youth is exposed to do not mean that it is in the best interest of the child or young teenager to be protected.

LESSON LEARNED:

-          We have to ask ourselves what in actual practice would be the consequences of having policies in place that restrict access.

-          The slippery slope maybe an actual and not just a conceptual possibility, if human beings in fact tend not to be so good at distinguishing material they personally dislike from that which is harmful.

INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:

1.       What is religious censorship which any material objectionable to a certain faith is removed?

2.       What is moral censorship?

3.       Is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise morally questionable?

4.       What is political censorship?

5.       What is military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics?