Essay Question- Blog Post #1

I chose to do censorship in the media as my Independent Study topic. I chose to do this topic because news and information is something that is completely invaluable to a society and its people, and governments or other authorities that try to take away this freedom to access information, are committing a violation against not only humanitarian rights but also breaking the law in our country. Media censorship can be defined as the act of preventing the publication of news or information that is to be broadcast to the general public. This as I said is a serious issue for society, and can have some very adverse effects on its population. Thankfully there is an effort being made to try and prevent this from happening.

We as humans, not just Americans, deserve the right to have access to whatever information we feel is necessary for our safety and well being. Especially here in America, if those rights are taken from us then we lose our Firest Amendment rights and by extension we lose a piece of ourselves that makes America, America. The First Amendment to our Constitution specifically states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Censoring the media would violate most every part of that statement. This cannot be allowed, mainly due to the ramifications that it can have on the media.

The ramifications that will be experienced if censorship were to take place would not necessarily physical, but more sociological. The basic way that the people of a society think will be altered by censorship. Democracy is based on the freedom to share and discuss ideas and information, hence the first amendment to the constitution. And censoring the media takes away a population's ability to share and discuss fore mentioned ideas and information, which is something that a general public needs to be able to do on a constant basis if they are to be able to think for themselves and create their own well educated opinions. This will all be lost and a hefty toll will be taken on a society that has an implemented censorship law or laws. However, there is a front that is working on fighting against this, the WPFC.

The WPFC (The World Press Freedom Committee) is an organization that is designed to help other organizations like UNESCO, and the UN fight against censorship and unfairness in the press. They have on multiple occasions won lawsuits that eventually lead to the decision that the licensing of journalists is illegal, and have developed a system to continuously monitor press freedom issues around the globe. This is a huge step that needs to be taken in order makes sure that censorship doesn’t take place.

As you can see, media censorship is no light issue. In fact, it is probably one of the more pertinent issues taking place around the world. The fact that media censorship completely defies humanitarian rights, and in some cases Constitutional rights, is wrong and unjust. The ramifications of this process are also totally detrimental to a society. This is why it must not be allowed to happen. There are organizations out in the world willing to fight this tyranny. This shows that information is powerful and that the opinion of the people should matter. People deserve the to hear or see whatever they want so that they may voice their opinion on a level playing field with the authority that governs them.

Websites Utilized
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/
http://www.wpfc.org