Essay on Censorship

Free Censorship papers

Abortion In Society
We live in a nation built on the idea of freedom, freedom of choice and freedom of expression, yet we are not free. Abortion is an ever-present choice that every woman should and does have, not based on ones financial situation, cultural background or even age; it’s a choice that every woman h

Censorship
CENSORSHIP Censorship and the ideology supporting it reiterates concepts from ancient times. In early Greek civilization, Socrates was accused of worshipping strange gods and corrupting the minds of the youth. He preferred to sacrifice his life rather than accept the censorship of his teachings. So

Censorship

The freedom to read is essential to the democratic way of life. But

today, that freedom is under attack. Private groups and public authorities

everywhere are working to remove both books and periodicals from sale, to

exclude certain books from public schools, to censor and silence magazines

and newspapers, and to limit "controversial" books and periodicals to the

general public. The suppression of reading materials is suppression of

creative thought. Books and periodicals are not the only ones being

suppressed by pressures to the political and social systems. They are also

being brought against the educational system, films, radio, television, and

against the graphic and theatre arts. However or whenever these attacks

occur, they usually fall at least one of the following categories:

Religion

War & Peace (Violence)

Sociology & Race

Language

Drugs

Sex

Inappropriate Adolescent Behaviour

What is Obscenity? Clearly something hard to talk about constructively.

"Obscenity" is difficult to discuss honestly. After all, what makes a thing

obscene? It is Something too vague perhaps to be defined. It's an elusive

term we use, but can't explain. Different people often see things

differently. Some see obscenity in nude pictures, statues, paintings, etc.

While others find less obscenity in these things. All the same, "obscene"

isn't the same as "wrong" or "bad". Clearly obscenity is not identical with

evil. It only covers a single segment of it. But what is that segment? A

look at the words "obscenity" and "pornography" suggests that it is a

segment that didn't worry people very much till relatively recently.

Though censorship was known in english law quite early on, it wasn't

for obscenity but for heresy and sedition."Undue" exploitation of sex" is

what criminal law in Canada prohibits. This is how criminal law defines

obscenity. But it is rather vague. It doesn't differentiate between

"ordinary obscenity" and "hard-core pornography." The first denoting the

ordinary run of "girlie magazines and the second denoting pictures ,

literature and so on that deal with rape, sadism, masochism, bestiality,

necrophilia and other perversions. People tend to object far more to "hard-

core pornography." Another distinction unfortunately overlooked by our

criminal law is the distinction between isolated instances of obscenity and

the products of vast commercial enterprise.

There has been an increasing trend towards children's literature that

reflects a more realistic approach to the life both fiction and non-fiction,

with subjects that include sex, homosexuality, divorce, child abuse, drugs,

violence, etc. And they...

The Censorship Iceberg: The results of a survey of challenges in school and

public libraries. By Dr. David Jenkins. School Libraries in Canada. Fall,

1985. v.6 n.1 p19-22

Sanitized textbooks reflect a pious paradise that never was. By June

Callwood. The Globe and Mail. March 18, 1987. pA2-A3

Suffer the little children. By Janet Collins. Books in Canada. October 1991.

v.20 n.7 p25-27

Court bans 'humanist' books from Alabama public schools. By Robin Toner.

The Globe and Mail. March 5, 1987. pA10

Censorship in the children's library. By Rupert Colley. The Junior

Bookshelf. June 1990. v.54 n.3 p121-123

Censorship News. Spring 1985. n20

Limits of criminal law - obscenity: a test case. By The Law Reform

Commission: working paper no. 10. p7-9

Censorship: stopping the book banners. By the book and periodical

development council. August 1988. p1-17