"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.
Censorship: Typically, censorship refers to the process in which any media product (such as television or radio program) is viewed and edited, if required, by a third party (who is authorized by the national government). Globally, different countries have different censorship laws due to which its degree varies worldwide-in some countries, such as China, the national government applies strong censorship in all television and radio programs, while in other countries, such as India, censorship is conducted by a government appointed agency in such a manner that no objectionable content is aired and citizens' right to freedom of expression is also not compromised.
Often, television and radio programs are censored to remove any content that comes under the purview of abusive language and behavior, obscenity (especially in cases where there is a direct impact on someone's personal life), content insulting a specific community, caste, or any other strata of the society, etc. As television and radio programs are means of mass communication, airing of any controversial content on these media sources negatively impacts the minds of viewers, especially young children with impressionable minds. Hence, removal or alteration of such content becomes necessary to prevent circulation of any negative idea into the masses, which typically identify themselves with the characters in the programs and try to imitate them in real life, and consequently create an unhealthy environment. Censorship becomes utmost important when the recipients of these programs largely consist of illiterate people. For instance, the Indian censorship board filters objectionable content (which largely consists of abusive language, obscene scenes, and personal references of people in controversial situations) by either editing the content (such as blurring the face or silencing the words in dialogues) or removing it completely.
On the contrary, censorship poses a significant threat to the democracy and right to freedom of expression of its citizens. This typically happens in situations when the government of a country censors everything according to its own political motives. In such scenarios, all media products, such as television and radio programs, internet search results, blogs, books, and sting operation programs, are censored to remove/alter any content that is not in sync with the government's political manifesto, in order to prevent any revolt from the citizens of the country. This situation is more likely to occur in communist countries such as China. The Chinese government censors media programs pertaining to a host of issues such as Tibetan independence, corruption, police brutality, anarchism, and Taiwan independence. The internet censorship policy of China is perhaps the strictest in the world-social networking and media sites (such as Twitter, Youtube and Flickr), individual blogs (that talk about the "restricted" topics), outbound news links, and results from search engines (such as Baidu, Google, and Yahoo) are banned.
In a nutshell, I would say that censorship is a necessary evil. Although it compromises people's right to freedom of expression, however, it also prevents broadcasting of programs that are made to satisfy whims and fancies of few people at local, state, or national level.
Censorship: Typically, censorship refers to the process in which any media product (such as television or radio program) is viewed and edited, if required, by a third party (who is authorized by the national government). Globally, different countries have different censorship laws due to which its degree varies worldwide-in some countries, such as China, the national government applies strong censorship in all television and radio programs, while in other countries, such as India, censorship is conducted by a government appointed agency in such a manner that no objectionable content is aired and citizens' right to freedom of expression is also not compromised.
Often, television and radio programs are censored to remove any content that comes under the purview of abusive language and behavior, obscenity (especially in cases where there is a direct impact on someone's personal life), content insulting a specific community, caste, or any other strata of the society, etc. As television and radio programs are means of mass communication, airing of any controversial content on these media sources negatively impacts the minds of viewers, especially young children with impressionable minds. Hence, removal or alteration of such content becomes necessary to prevent circulation of any negative idea into the masses, which typically identify themselves with the characters in the programs and try to imitate them in real life, and consequently create an unhealthy environment. Censorship becomes utmost important when the recipients of these programs largely consist of illiterate people. For instance, the Indian censorship board filters objectionable content (which largely consists of abusive language, obscene scenes, and personal references of people in controversial situations) by either editing the content (such as blurring the face or silencing the words in dialogues) or removing it completely.
On the contrary, censorship poses a significant threat to the democracy and right to freedom of expression of its citizens. This typically happens in situations when the government of a country censors everything according to its own political motives. In such scenarios, all media products, such as television and radio programs, internet search results, blogs, books, and sting operation programs, are censored to remove/alter any content that is not in sync with the government's political manifesto, in order to prevent any revolt from the citizens of the country. This situation is more likely to occur in communist countries such as China. The Chinese government censors media programs pertaining to a host of issues such as Tibetan independence, corruption, police brutality, anarchism, and Taiwan independence. The internet censorship policy of China is perhaps the strictest in the world-social networking and media sites (such as Twitter, Youtube and Flickr), individual blogs (that talk about the "restricted" topics), outbound news links, and results from search engines (such as Baidu, Google, and Yahoo) are banned.
In a nutshell, I would say that censorship is a necessary evil. Although it compromises people's right to freedom of expression, however, it also prevents broadcasting of programs that are made to satisfy whims and fancies of few people at local, state, or national level.
