Censorship is defined as "Policy of restricting the public expression of ideas, opinions, conceptions, and impulses, which have or are believed to have the capacity to undermine the governing authority or the social and moral order which that authority considers itself bound to protect" (Abraham 357). There is said to be four different categories, which are referred to as political, religious, against obscenity, and censorship affecting academic freedom. All of these categories are equal in their destructiveness towards free speech. There are two different forms that censorship takes; prior, which refers to advance suppression and "post facto" which is suppression after it has been published (Brower 5). Authorities since the beginning of the written word have used bo

There are many rationalizations that are used by people that promote censorship. The first rationalization is that ideas presented or about to be presented are "false" and/or "dangerous" by the standards of the authorities and so they must be suppressed or punished. The second is that the minds of those who would be subjected to the ideas to be censored are not capable of seeing the "falsity" and would hence be led astray. Lastly, ideas that lead to "anti-social behavior" such as hardcore pornography must be censored (Abraham 360). For as many people that use these rationalizations, there is as many that do not.

In 1964, the case of The New York Times v. Sullivan found that the press is not censurable and it even cannot be sued for allegedly libelous statements unless deliberate malice is proved. In the Supreme Court case of Roth v. U.S. and Alberts v. California, Judge William Brennan stated that, "obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech because it is utterly without redeeming social importance, however sex and obscenity are not synonymous and the portrayal of sex is entitled to constitutional protection as long as it is not obscene" (Abraham). These court cases have shown that censorship is unconstitutional and hopefully there will be no more laws that condone it.

Abraham, Henry J. "Censorship." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.

Dubin, Steven C. Arresting Images. New York: Routledge: 1992.

Throughout history, figures that don't have the real power to censor resort to personal pressure tactics to intimidate those who have influence over, or in command of, channels of communication. The McCarthy era during the 1940's and 1950's is a compelling example of this. During this time there was blacklisting of controversial literary figures as well as performing artists, thus blocking their employment in certain media such as movies, radio, and television. By doing this they accomplished the task of preventing the public from seeing what they considered to be objectionable material (Dubin 27).

It is easy to say that censorship will always be a highly controversial issue and that there will always be many people with strong viewpoints on both sides. It has been proved that it is unconstitutional and damaging to literature but unless something is done to stop it, censorship will be rampant in America now and into the future.

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Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)