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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 02 2018, @09:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-Disapprove-of-What-You-Say,-But-I-Will-Defend-to-the-Death-Your-Right-to-Say-It dept.

From an editorial in the Otago Daily Times out of New Zealand, Censorship a Trojan Horse:

It's an oft-cited maxim that the news media is the "fourth estate" upon which a healthy democracy stands.

It ensures the three traditional powers of state — the legislature, executive and judiciary — can be critiqued, challenged and curbed from quietly drifting into the arms of corruption and authoritarianism.

A free, fair, open and uncensored media is an antidote to state power and, for all its failings (and there are many), should be treasured as such. There are many countries around the world whose people would give anything for such a freedom.

Yet calls for the banning of certain opinion pieces, cartoons and commentary have risen in recent months, especially from those using social media, a world where such talk is becoming a trend. It is a trend we must confront.

Censorship is to suppress the harmful, the unacceptable, the obscene and the threatening from the media and other forms of public communication. Like a virus attacking democracy from the inside out, it was traditionally the tool of the dictator, though it is one used by many in power.

[...] It pays to query what those demanding censorship — be they celebrities, social-media activists or anybody else — see their ultimate goal as being.

To reduce hurt? To make the world a better place? Possibly, and those motivations are laudable. But the method employed to achieve them is not.

While censorship may be meant as a figurative horse upon which a better future rides, inside the belly of that horse lurks an army of conformity, quite capable of unwitting oppression.

History shows what happens when the fourth estate is no longer free to table all opinions.

It is a bleak picture. Without the disinfectant of exposure, power and ideals tend to corrupt even the most seemingly incorruptible.


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @10:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 02 2018, @10:22PM (#743097)

    maintaining enough hardship to..

    I had a friend in college whose parents were Chinese immigrants (and successful ones at that). They invited me to dinner at one of their restaurants once and over dinner they explained part of the Chinese culture was denial of self gratification. I don't know how true this is (he's the only guy from China that I knew), but I've seen that as a common trait among all successful people I've known. My most successful friend lives in a dumpy house while renting out his nicer houses to other people.

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