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Censorship

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CENSORSHIP, VIOLENCE & PRESS FREEDOM
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From http://www.article19.org
Violence, bans and seizure of content are just some of the methods
used to directly censor and suppress people and their ideas.
Censorship in all its forms is often unjustifiable and is used simply
to stop truths or ideas emerge which draw attention to powerful people

or governments, or undermine ideology. This is inexcusable.
When the exercise of the right to free expression clashes with the
rights of others or threatens the safety of the nation, legislators face a

difficult exercise of drawing lines; is a restriction necessary and how far
should it go?
As James Madison, who framed the US Constitution’s protection
of freedom of expression, wrote, it is often prudent to permit some abuse

of freedom of expression in order to ensure that legitimate use of the
right is not discouraged:

Some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of
everything, and in no instance is this more true than in that of the press.
It ... is better to leave a few of its noxious branches to their luxuriant
growth than, by pruning them away, to injure the vigour of those

yielding the proper fruits.
One of the main arguments advanced against licensing of
journalists and publications was its indiscriminate nature: denial of a

licence is tantamount to a ban on all future articles, without regard to
their content.
But what about a statement, whether written or audiovisual, which
has already been completed but not yet made public? Should the

authorities only impose sanctions after publication, where justified, or
should they, in appropriate circumstances, be able to prevent its release?
Prior censorship poses special dangers to freedom of expression. If

the authorities are able to suppress publications which nobody has seen,
it becomes impossible for others to verify whether the suppression was
indeed justified; it is a question of time before such an unchecked power
is abused to prevent criticism of government. One partial solution is to

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Cencorship, Violence & Press Freedom. – Available at: http://www.article19.org/
pages/en/censorship-violence-press-freedom-more.html