Now, censorship is a broadly used term so what exactly IS censorship? Well, censorship is defined by the Australian Macquarie Dictionary as 'the actions of a censor - that is, an official who examines books, plays, news reports, films, radio programs (and more recently the internet), for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military or other grounds'. Censorship has been around since the beginning of time. It has been used as a tool to control what others have access to. In Australia today, we are supposedly guaranteed the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press by our constitution. Yet censorship still exists. We are told censorship is necessary, but at what cost? National security and public interest, are these valid reasons? Why must the government decide what is best for me to read or watch in a cinema or in the privacy of my own home? Sure, we must protect our youth, but that is a parent'

nutrients, water nor sunlight, but allow it to move around a bit. Our society needs to be treated in the same fashion. There should indeed be ready access to information, but in varying degrees of freedom, determined not by censorship, but by controlled access. The government is trying to protect the population from the harsh realities of life through censorship of information, but are they really helping, or are they hindering by restricting the individual's freedom to information in a supposedly democratic nation?

The whole premise of obscenity relies on individual opinion.

A majority of the censorship I have run into in my lifetime is due to my age. The government determined some years ago that myself and minors in general were not mature or old enough to deal with certain subjects and thus forbade us from obtaining these certain pieces of material. Aside from this I believe myself and the Australian public have been very fortunate in our academic freedom. Compared to other places in the world we have a very wide access to material from all over from a wide variety of points of view. One of the greatest aspects of life, without any doubt, must be the process of learning and acquiring information. Beyond simple facts, this allows an individual to better understand the world around them in all its different aspects and to better appreciate the diversity of existence. For these reasons censorship poses a serious threat to both the individual person and to society as a whole for it obstructs the search for all knowledge and is detrimental to a complete understanding of life as we know it. Within any nation it is in the best interests of its citizens to allow all ideas and information to be free from any restrictions and prohibitions. Free speech eliminates the possibility of one group imposing its own values and judgme

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Approximate Word count = 1237
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)