Do you believe in "blanket" censorship?
By James72
@James72 (26790)
Australia
March 28, 2007 12:06am CST
Do a group of individuals have the right to determine what is OK to make available to society as a whole or not? For example, I am living in India at the moment and the cable TV station AXN was taken off air for a month because of an adults only TV commercial program that was deemed to be offensive because of nudity I believe. It was on very late at night and was one of over one hundred channels people could watch but was banned for a month regardless.
I do understand and agree that certain content needs to be banned for moral and ethical reasons but in relation to the example above; is this fair? Should an individual not be given the choice to watch or not watch? Sometimes I think censorship can go too far. We are mostly intelligent people and I believe we should have the right to "police" our own choices. All it takes is the changing of a channel or the pushing of an off button.....
I am sure that there will be some people who will make immediate reference to XXX and violence etc and I wish to reiterate that I agree wholeheartedly that content such as this should be heavily monitored and not freely available as it may be accessed by minors. I am making specific reference to the example outlined above.
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4 responses
@Metallideth (572)
• United States
14 Apr 07
Most of the time censorship gets on my nerves, but sometimes I do see a benefit. I guess it's better to have everyone watch watered-down versions of movies without "inappropriate" content on TV than to have young children viewing some of the stuff out there. I think the next step in censorship is something like what the internet has, when a site has a warning or disclaimer before you actually enter it if there is objectional content. Of course, this wouldn't work literally, because it would be a hassle to do that with every channel, but what I mean is that TV will become increasingly interactive until everything is similar to "On-Demand" or similar services, that offer programs that you can watch at any time, by selecting it from a list of available shows/movies. Then it would be a person's choice to view the content, rather than channel surfing and stumbling upon something that offends them.
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@imsilver (1665)
• Canada
29 Mar 07
Censorship is one of my biggest pet peeves. I don't believe at all that one group or person has the right to decide what everyone can or cannot read or watch or learn or do to their own body.
I don't even censor too much of what my children see or read. I just make sure that I'm there to explain what's going on or give them the true facts on whatever the topic may be.
It's a big world out there in that there is alot of different people and thoughts and opinions and beliefs but the internet makes the world very small and any information you want is now at your fingertips. Trying to stop people from seeing or reading or learning anything these days is almost impossible.
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@James72 (26790)
• Australia
29 Mar 07
I too have children and exercise common sense in what they have access to. I too will explain anything that is unwittingly seen by them that maybe should not have been. That is my role as a parent. I agree with restrictions on some things but mostly agree with your point. Thanks for responding.
@mansha (6298)
• India
28 Mar 07
I am from India too and I think we see more x material on V channel then what we saw on axn and I ffeel this moral policing is really wrong. I am sick opf these moral brigades. we are all adults not kids and we do have right to watch we want. WWF has ore voilence than AXN buit that has been okayed. all shahrukh movies should be banned and movies like apaharan should not be allowed on TV.
I am sick of this hipocracy here. But fault lies with people we should have choosen well as to who shopuld sit where now we have promoted all kinds of criminals on the top and now we suffer.
shivsena, bajrabng dal, BJP should be banned and sushma swaraj should be jailed for doing this. I am really upset with her and her all Indian womanly looks. She wants all of us to stay stuck in 1850's and never coem out of their.
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@James72 (26790)
• Australia
28 Mar 07
There is definitely no uniformity in the way they censor TV in India that's for sure! And I agree with you on the WWF and Channel V points. Maybe the actions or visuals portrayed on Channel V are deemed to be "suggestive" only so therefore harmless? As long as they are mindful of times shown then I too would like to have the choice to watch what I want to watch. Thanks for responding.
@miejanne (222)
• Finland
28 Mar 07
No, I don't believe in censorship at all, sure there have to be somekind of guidelines and rules, but not censorship. Like no R-rated movies before 22:00, no commercials in the middle of children programs and such. If channel cannot follow these simple rules and only then, they could give penalty or bad it for some time.
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