GMAT Essays (AWA)

“In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive language and behavior. In
other countries, there is little or no censorship.”

In your view, to what extent should government or any other group be able to censor television or radio programs?
Explain, giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your position.


Response
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In my view, the extent to which govt or other group should be able to censor offensive language and behaviour should depend upon the target audience – children, adults – and the content – offensive to minority group or a particular section of the society - of the program.

First, we live in a civilized society, a society where there is no place for offensive language and behaviour. Aggressive behaviour and language are the tools used by people who can not convince others using logical reasoning to hurt or harm others. By showing such thing on television I don’t think we are setting good examples for our society to follow.

Second, offensive language and behaviour affect children. Television has great influence on children, because whatever they see on the television they tend to use in the real life. For example, while travelling on public transport, I hear so many young children using offensive language. Media is to some extent responsible for that.

Finally, offensive language and behaviour may influence others to perform similar actions in the real life. For example, some of the schools shootings in the US were as a result of people learning from aggressive behaviour seen in movies – probably shown on TV.

Some may argue, censorship of aggressive behaviour is against the freedom of expression or speech. Yet, if someone’s freedom of speech or expression is harmful for others then it is not worth it. Others may argue that by censoring violent behaviour and language we are pretending that such things do not exist in this world. However, we don’t have to glorify those bad things on TV.

In summary, censorship is necessary to make sure that aggressive behaviour and language do not hurt viewer’s sentiments.