Censorship or No Censorship ?

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

My views on this....

Censorship of television and radio programs is a contentious issue which directly confronts the basic human right of freedom to expression and places a restriction on the content quality that is suitable for public viewing. The restriction or censorship of offensive language and behaviour is a generally accepted and practiced phenomenon in different parts of the world though the relative level and quality of censorship may differ. Local, cultural and social factors coupled with language and dialects define he level and limits of censorship  I support censorship of television and radio programs only if they are censored for offensive language and behaviour and such censorship do not infringe upon unbiased access to information and news flow.

One aspect of censorship is that the programs are carefully censored for offensive language and behaviour which is understandably done to prevent a degeneration of society and degradation of cultural values. It is done to prevent hurting any religious or socio-cultural sentiments or exposing vulnerable minds to such offensive content. Each society and culture is different. So in case of censorship ‘one size fit all’ approach cannot be applied. A program which is considered offensive and unsuitable for viewing in a very conservative and closed society may be absolutely suitable and acceptable to be a part of the culture in a open and broad minded society. The limits of censorship thus needs to be applied based on local socio cultural factors and by building a public consensus on what is unsuitable for general viewing.

Another aspect of censorship is the abuse of censorship by people and organizations for thie rvested interests. It is being done under the veil of censorship of television and programs, but the intent is to satisfy certain politically motivated vested interests. Certain societies fail to give regard to public consensus in implementing such censorship controls. Any censorship or control whose intent is to satisfy vested interests and not preventing degradation of society by unsuitable and offensive content is an infringement of basic human rights and should not be practiced. Certain communist countries have very strict regulations and censorship laws to censor television and program to air any views which are against the ruling regime. Such rules and censorship have placed a limit of the freedom of expression of its citizens which is unethical and unlawful.

The degree to which censorship should be allowed is certainly a relative concept. It should be decided based on factors such as local culture, traditions and norms. Social set up and local language and dialects needs to be factored in to build a public consensus of what are the limits which the society is willing to place on itself and thus restrict programs which it feels are unsuitable and offensive. For example certain programs which are suitable for public viewing are regarded offensive and unsuitable in the Islamic countries and are thus censored. The limits and degree of censorship should thus be self imposed based on above discussed factors rather than imposed on the society in isolation by the regulators.