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 The Internet is a behemoth in our present media age, and the content
that it provides (some of which is freely viewable) is questionable and
extremely uncouth?
9. Why does media censorship need to be exercised to a great extent?

10. Summarize the text.

Text 5

CENSORSHIP AND THE ARTS
37
By Robert Fulton Drive
The freedom to create and to experience works of art is essential to
our democracy. At present this freedom is under attack. Private groups
and public leaders in various parts of the nation are attempting to

remove certain artworks from public display, to censor exhibitions, to
label particular works as “controversial”, and to identify some artworks
and artists as “objectionable”.
These actions arise from a view that censorship is needed in order

to avoid the subversion of politics and the corruption of morals.
Moreover, it is not only artworks that are being subjected to efforts at
suppression. These efforts are related to a larger pattern of pressure

being brought against education, the press, film, and television. It is
important to note that even when such efforts do not actually suppress
particular types of expression, they cast a shadow of fear which leads to
voluntary curtailment of expression by those who seek to avoid

controversy. The arts cannot thrive in such a climate of fear.
Art educators should be deeply concerned over efforts at any kind
of suppression of works of art. Freedom of expression is guaranteed by

the Constitution. This freedom of expression includes both verbal
expression—speech and writing; and non-verbal expression, which
includes the “language” of the various arts.

Free communication is essential to the preservation of a free
society and a creative culture. Now, as always in our history, artworks—
literature, theatre, painting, sculpture, music, and dance, are among our

most effective instruments of freedom. They are powerful means for
making available ideas, feelings, social growth, the envisioning of new

37
Drive Fulton R. Censorship and the Arts / Robert Fulton Drive. – Available at:
http://www.arteducators.org/about-us/Censorship_and_the_Arts.pdf.