In almost all the coutries there are laws regulating the contents of films videos books and newspaper Should the media be controlled in these ways What are the benefits or risks of censorship

Nowadays, individuals are bombarded with information every minute as we are living in the information era. Accordingly, authorities in each country expurgate the information represented via media to some extent, to make sure that the audience receives appropriate information. In this essay, I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this policy.

On the one hand, governments can ensure the authenticity of news that their citizens read or watch daily. As a matter of fact, when everyone is allowed to spread news in the media, plenty of fake news might be represented to users. For instance, during the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease, a lot of unreliable news was spread which caused widespread panic among people all over the world. Moreover, concerned organisations can protect youngsters from inappropriate content by censorship. Young children have long been protected from inappropriate content such as violent or sexual movies by the governments' control over the videos and news that are available to them. The results of a survey conducted by Oxford university professors, emphasises the importance of protecting children from exposure to violent content. In this survey, researchers found out that watching movies containing savage scenes, increases the probability of committing crimes by students.

On the other hand, censorship can be abused by authorities to hide their corruption from the public and manipulate the population by propaganda. This issue is mostly seen in the countries which are ruled by an autocratic ruler. In such countries, leaders not only try to limit the access of people to real information, but also try to make them believe what they present them as trustworthy information. In addition, an strict policy on controlling people's voices may violate a fundamental human right, freedom of speech. For example, many dictators around the world rely on censorship to stop those who are brave enough to stand against their corruption from raising their opposing views.

In conclusion, although the free circulation of information might have some negative effects like increasing misleading news or encouraging the young to aggressive actions, it can prevent the violation of human rights like access to free data and expressing opinions.