What is the true purpose of censorship? How has it been used for good?

[Karin]

What kind of censorship does America have? I've been curious about this for some time. I know America's censorship is nowhere near as strict as that found in China.

I have a general idea of how censorship is bad. But I think, if used in moderation, it is a necessary evil. I want to know from your perspective how you think censorship has been used for good.

[Jay]

The true purpose of censorship is to present one side of an argument and ignore anything that is contrary or contradicts that point of view. Generally it exists to back up a government.

Censorship can sometimes be used for positive reasons - in WWII it was imperative to print good news and bolster public opinion for the war. News on reverses and defeats can affect morale so perhaps some media massaging is valuable to ensure that there's not too much negativity.

Censorship can also be used to quash ill-founded rumours and in some cases sensitive acts of the government are censored because the consequences of their being broadcast might be harmful. For example, suppose a newspaper discovered that the US government knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding and was planning to capture/kill him then it would jeopradise the mission by publishing or broadcasting a story about it. However governments should never be above criticism or media investigation.

[Grammer Nazi]

lol. I always liked saying this to people. How do you know the government isn't censoring anything if it is already censored? Censorship is used to keep a story one sided. Like the Nazis are bad and there is nothing good about em.

[ecc451]

Jay is basically right. Censorship is not only done at governmental levels through enforcing laws against people who leak information the government considers too sensitive, but also through laws that allow private citizens to sue for slander. Various countries have different legal limits for what is considered slander; the US courts allow a more open standard of criticism than, for example, Great Britain. In a stronger example, many South Koreans, especially young people, committed suicide when social networking sites (Korean versions of Facebook or Twitter) allowed anonymous posting of horrible -- and false -- accusations to multiply radically and ruin people's reputations. So a law was passed that these Korea-based sites that are extremely popular would require real-name registration on a similar level to the real-name banking system that had been set up to prevent criminals from hiding money in other people's names.

Information has always been important, but far more so in the modern world than it ever has been before. Just because something is true does not mean it is wise for it to be known to everyone -- and this says nothing about what is half-true or even totally false.

Parents and supervisors will try to censor what youth see and experience, such as hard-core pornography or scenes of graphic violence. News media associations censor what is published by their members to create a decent standard that readers and viewers can depend on. You know when you open the New York Times that there won't be a photo of a naked woman on page 3, or one of someone's chopped-off finger or head.

Back to direct governmental censorship; imagine what a dim view the FBI would have about publishing explicit instructions how to make a bomb capable of downing an airliner or a bridge, information a terrorist could use to kill soldiers stationed overseas, or any number of other things that genuinely could compromise national security. Or, on a local level a police department will suppress information (a form of censorship) it deems important to protect an ongoing investigation. Censorship is all around us at various levels.

On the whole, however, overall, censorship is a powerful instrument that is often too bluntly applied. Unfairly conducted or enforced, it tends to crush the human spirit and human development. Not to mention, it can also encourage corruption and the enforcement of justice -- though one person's idea of justice may be quite at odds with another's. Witness the efforts on the part of the Chinese government to stifle information about the Tiananmen Square massacre, or the Tibetan independence movement, or Taiwan (the three T's), or about various dissidents who oppose the one-party Communist rule. Internet freedom in China is quite restricted; many words cannot be searched because they will embarrass the government, which believes this suppression necessary for its own national security. I disagree, but then again I am not a Communist Party member in Beijing trying to maintain control over a billion people.