Censorship in Australia
No society has ever existed, as far as we know, which has not exercised some form of censorship over the conduct and opinions of its members... Good morning teachers and students. Censorship by the government infringes upon the rights of the individual and inhibits freedom of expression. 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's
The whole premise of obscenity relies on individual opinion. Nobody in our society is told what to watch, listen to or partake in, therefore it should only be fair that nobody is told what they can't watch, can't listen to or can't partake in. 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 judgments upon another and instead creates a society of free thinking individuals, who, as a whole, can work together for the benefit of all. responsibility, not the government's. I can understand censorship based upon national security; we can't go around selling all of our secrets without a major threat to our government and our way of life. Censors
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Approximate Word count = 1244
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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