Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 30, No. 12. 1967.

Censorship should go

Censorship should go

The recent controversy surrounding the Indecent Publications Tribunal has served to expose censoring as an unnecessary restriction for a supposedly liberal society such as ours.

However, the dying forces of Victorian puritanism can be expected to rise again and swoop on a page or perhaps a piece of celluloid.

There are two most remarkable features of censoring in this country. Firstly the preoccupation with sex and not violence for instance. Secondly despite a complete absence of evidence which suggests youth is morally corrupted by seeing sex as portrayed in some books and films, the protesters continue to make this claim.

Why a campaign has not been launched against war comics and others which centre around violence and are sold in dairies is somewhat puzzling.

The underlying factor behind our censoring system is that sex is not acceptable to the older generations as a suitable topic for conversation.

These people are concerned about the rising sexuality of the younger generation which makes them feel very uncomfortable, especially if their own children start discussing it among themselves.

As corrupt governments wish to hide this side of their activity so many of the older generation want to keep sex out of mind and thus out of print and celluloid.

Censoring is a restriction placed on man's liberty and should be carefully considered before being applied.

Before it can be justified there must be evidence which clearly shows detriment or unhappiness which others will suffer if an individual is permitted to see a certain book or film.

In other words it must be shown the act of seeing will cause the individual to rise and cause loss of happiness to some other person or persons.

Probably only in times of a national emergency would some strictly limited censorship be justifiable.

However if literature which emphasises sex is to be subjected to this close scrutiny, should not other products of society be also carefully examined for possible detrimental side effects.

This of course would require thousands of tribunals. Cigarettes and alcohol might be the first to be axed as in both there is clear evidence showing detriment suffered by consumer and others.

With the current witch hunt on books in progress it is time the more liberal members of our society organised opposition to our whole censoring system.

B.G.S.