“In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive languages 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.


Supporters of first amendment in USA will cry foul whenever Government regulates the freedom of speech. On the other hand, without a law or amendment related to censorship, anyone can air any programs that will be offensive to different set of people. I fully support that Government or any other group should have a framework on censorship within which all the programs should air.

Without censorship, we all know what happened during the Super Bowl half time? While the miscues happened in a split second, the Government excused the network by slapping the wrist. In another instance, a radio jockey uttered a racist comment on the Syracuse women’s basketball program in prime time. Even though he was removed from the job, the network once again escaped with a slap on the wrist.

This happened because there is no strict framework on censorship as to what is acceptable and what is not. This allows other networks to follow the same path knowing fully well that they will be warned, rather than having strong implications.

While we are a very tolerable society, we still need to have a high level censorship of what is acceptable and what is not. No racist comments, no sexual innuendos should aired during prime time on any networks, be it radio or television. In addition, Government should enact a law for major television and radio networks to delay their broadcast by a few seconds in order to capture any hiccups.

Overall, even though I am big believer in freedom of speech, I strongly feel that we should have censorship that will provide our kids to listen freely to a song on the radio without any bombardment of censored items in the airwaves.

Thank you