The Pros And Cons Of Information Censorship

For the past twenty or so years information has largely been stored in digital form, providing the current generation of digital natives with access to more and more information in recent years. With this new flow of information available to the public has come increased censoring by the government. However, this is not a new issue as some might believe. Since the first primitive government was established information has been shielded and manipulated from the every day citizens of the world by those in power. The cause fought against information censorship enjoys the same past. For as long as information has been censored there have been those who have fought against it (Newth, 2010). This issue has arisen particularly in the United States, as some believe access to any information that exists is a right protected by the Constitution. The United States was founded by people, and established structure to be governed by people. Often people are blinded by the whirlwind of media, believing those in the public eye, i.e. celebrities, to be a step above the rest, almost a different species. Fundamentally, however, we are all the same. Those we entrust with
By denying the public the right of access to any form of information the government denies the public their basic rights. The public should be trusted with information, just as the public trusts government officials with the governance of their country. The government is not only defiling the rights of American citizens by censoring what information they have access to, but betraying the trust they bestowed upon them to make decisions in their best interests. Political and social activist said it best: “The right to know is the right to live” (FreedomInfo, 2006). This sums up perfectly what many take for granted, that information is not simply knowing, but something which influences every aspect of an individual’s