Living in the United States of America has a ton of perks to it. The freedom of speech and of the press is one of them. Imagine living in a country where your favorite books, movies, and TV shows have all been banned because the government deemed them to be inappropriate or capable of influencing you in ways they think you shouldn't be influenced. That means that you probably wouldn't be able to read Cosmopolitan or watch Jersey Shore. The reality is, though, that many countries around the world are struggling with censorship laws.
What is censorship? It's when the government or organization monitors and controls what media outlets are saying and broadcasting. The most often seen forms of censorship are banning certain books, 'bleeping' in songs, and broadcast delays of live events. Countries all over the world use some form of censorship; it even happens in America. While our censorship laws are not as strict as a country like China's, we still definitely have them. You can't, for example, go around naked on television shows and be dropping the f-bomb on Sesame Street. But in the USA we can read books like Animal Farm and The Diary of Anne Frank without having to worry about whether or not they are illegal.
Countries that do have strong censorship laws are often countries with very active political parties, such as China. China is one of the best examples of censorship, and they censor topics such as the use of democracy, pornography (which is probably a good thing), and religion. All forms of media are censored in China, and many common American websites are blocked on their servers, YouTube and Flickr being two examples. International news casts such as CNN or BBC are sometimes 'blacked out' when the Chinese government feels that an issue is too controversial.
If we lived in a country where there was this much censorship, how would we react? Would we be up in arms about the gross injustice of the situation, or would we be content to sit and watch a blank screen whenever sex or violence comes on the screen? I believe that everyone should have the ability to watch whatever they want, and that nothing should be off limits to the people.
Because we have so much freedom in America, it is sometimes easy to forget that the rest of the world doesn't live the same way. The idea of the government being that pervasive in our everday lives is hard to imagine. I also believe people shoulf be able to watch whatever floats their boats, and it is very unfortunate everyone doesn't have this right.
ReplyDeleteCensorship is something that I have always wondered about. Do the people in those countries know they are being censored? If I know that I was being censored, I would go crazy trying to figure out what the things are that I am being censored from. I wouldn't be able to control myself.
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