Censorship in the media has been a controversial topic ever since the founding of the United States. From the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 that restrict the rights of immigrants, under the John Adams presidency, to the Edward Snowden and NSA scandal in 2013 that concerned government surveillance of its citizens and government transparency. These controversies have caused a public backlash against media censorship of any kind but there are aspects of media censorship that protect society rather than hurt it. Instead of hiding government secrets or preventing certain political ideas from being expressed, media censorship can be used to hide criminal’s and victim’s names as well to hide sensitive and graphic images or video from the public.
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Or should the government try its hardest to limit censorship? Media censorship can be a major problem to society, but to what extent should it be limited to?
Many events regarding censorship in the media have occurred in recent times. In 2013, a former employee of the National Security Agency, named Edward Snowden, exposed many secrets regarding the surveillance of the citizens of the United States. Snowden revealed that the NSA collects US phone records, hacks Chinese internet servers, bugged the European Union offices located in the US, monitors foreign embassies in the US, collects and stores SMS messages, and even intercepted the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s phone calls. (BBC News. Snowden, Jan. 17, 2014). These surveillance issues caused for a public backlash against government surveillance and the NSA. The majority of Americans disapprove of the NSA’s collection of telephone records and more and more people are beginning to be concerned about the country’s lack of civil liberty protection because they don’t believe their liberties should be sacrificed in the name of counter-terrorism. (Civil Liberty in America, Gao, G May 29, 2015). When major media outlets began …show more content…
According to George Gao, 56% of Americans disapprove of the NSA collecting phone records and text messages, but that means the other, almost half, of Americans feel the need to give up some of their freedom to protect national security. (Civil Liberty in America, May 29 2015) WikiLeaks, the notorious website that finds and exposes government information, poses a real threat to the national security. While a popular website today due to its high credibility, it has revealed highly classified information that has hurt not only national security but foreign relations as well as reveal military info that they could use against terrorism in the middle east. There was a small public outrage over the censorship, or rather “un-censorship”, in a St. Louis sexual assault case. A sexual assault victim’s name was revealed in a story about her sexual assault in the St. Louis post dispatch. It had revealing information like exactly what she drank, how she had blacked out, who she was with that night and what man allegedly raped her. It even published her job and who employed her. (Post-Dispatch Shamed Victim, June 25,
Or should the government try its hardest to limit censorship? Media censorship can be a major problem to society, but to what extent should it be limited to?
Many events regarding censorship in the media have occurred in recent times. In 2013, a former employee of the National Security Agency, named Edward Snowden, exposed many secrets regarding the surveillance of the citizens of the United States. Snowden revealed that the NSA collects US phone records, hacks Chinese internet servers, bugged the European Union offices located in the US, monitors foreign embassies in the US, collects and stores SMS messages, and even intercepted the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s phone calls. (BBC News. Snowden, Jan. 17, 2014). These surveillance issues caused for a public backlash against government surveillance and the NSA. The majority of Americans disapprove of the NSA’s collection of telephone records and more and more people are beginning to be concerned about the country’s lack of civil liberty protection because they don’t believe their liberties should be sacrificed in the name of counter-terrorism. (Civil Liberty in America, Gao, G May 29, 2015). When major media outlets began …show more content…
According to George Gao, 56% of Americans disapprove of the NSA collecting phone records and text messages, but that means the other, almost half, of Americans feel the need to give up some of their freedom to protect national security. (Civil Liberty in America, May 29 2015) WikiLeaks, the notorious website that finds and exposes government information, poses a real threat to the national security. While a popular website today due to its high credibility, it has revealed highly classified information that has hurt not only national security but foreign relations as well as reveal military info that they could use against terrorism in the middle east. There was a small public outrage over the censorship, or rather “un-censorship”, in a St. Louis sexual assault case. A sexual assault victim’s name was revealed in a story about her sexual assault in the St. Louis post dispatch. It had revealing information like exactly what she drank, how she had blacked out, who she was with that night and what man allegedly raped her. It even published her job and who employed her. (Post-Dispatch Shamed Victim, June 25,