Censorship In Australia Essay

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Censorship, defined as the act of destroying, suppressing or withholding information otherwise intended for the public, is detrimental to the community in a number of ways and has no place in a democratic society. Firstly it is detrimental to the progression of social ethics, morals and ideals and limits diversity in society while prolonging ignorance. Secondly it is a breach of freedom of expression, free speech and the free press. It will be demonstrated in this essay that censorship does happen in Australia, that it is not beneficial to society, and that it should be replaced with a system of management where members of the public will always have a choice as to whether or not they can view material intended for the public.
Censorship in Australia comes about in a few ways. In regards to videos, video games and feature films, the Australian Classifications Board (ACB) has control of classifications. Regarding the internet, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) maintains a blacklist of overseas websites for use with filtering software, and has the power to enforce restriction on content hosted within Australia. News and current affairs in Australia are exempt from classification however there are still problems with censorship by newsgroups and self censorship by reporters.
When a video, video game or feature film is released, if the Australian Classifications Board is unable to classify material or the material is refused then it is effectively censored. Refused material is categorised as refused classification (RC). Despite the fact that the ACB admits adults should be able to watch, play and read what they want, the sole criterion provided for RC classification is “content that is very high in impact and fa...

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...ily Tele and have been using their front pages to run a political campaign instead.
Their owner, US billionaire Rupert Murdoch, has an agenda to get rid of our current PM. Fair enough. We all have an opinion. But political bias dressed up as news is – well, misleading crap.
The man then uses the newspaper to scoop some dog droppings and puts it in a nearby garbage bin, then remarks “Thanks Rupert, but Australians can choose their own government.”
Channel Ten refused to run the advertisement giving no reason, incidentally Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch was chairman of Channel Ten at the time. Channel Seven also refused on the grounds that the ad was “distasteful” and “potentially offensive”. Channel Nine did run the ad for four days, but then pulled the ad from their schedule citing “coding errors”. Both Fairfax media and ABC ran the ad in their news coverage.

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