Censorship

Question 1

BAD: Actions that border on paternalistic will only backfire

Answer 1

1) Chinese govt push for “moral building” only switched to less TV viewing and more online viewing

in 2012, only 30% of households in Beijing watched TV, down from 70% 3 years earlier

2) Arresting Amos Yee

Question 2

BAD: Will deter societal progress

• unpopular views will not be discussed

Answer 2

China’s one child policy

- SG :Ministers dialogue

Question 3

BAD: Lead to a totalitarian government

• necessary truths will not be published
• in some countries, investigative journalism is not allowed!

Answer 3

1) “The Great Firewall of China”
- blocks democracy websites and only websites that threaten the ruling party’s ideology

2) FEER (Far Eastern Economic Review) published an interview with an opposition leader in Singapore, claiming that the government had “skeletons in the closet” – FEER was later banned in 2006!!
3) SG ranked 149 out of 179 countries in the World Press Freedom index in 2012

Question 4

GOOD: Help ensures national security

National interest precedes individual rights

1. Helps upholds public order
2. Ensure harmony (Maria Hertogh riots - claimed 18 lives)

Answer 4

• Edward Snowden’s leak - compromised safety of military operations

Question 5

BAD: Poses a threat to free speech rights

Answer 5

Charlie Hebdo

- in 2006, controversy over the publication of cartoon of Prophet Muhammad

Question 6

BAD: Imposes values, assumes we are not capable of making wise decisions

Answer 6

Author of “Not in front of your children” – not exposing children to real life issues makes them more vulnerable in the future

Question 7

BAD: Cultivate ignorance

Answer 7

Japan - generations are not aware of the obscurities of their past (e.g. Rape of the Nanking); cause them to turn their back on country when they find out the truth

Question 8

GOOD: Helps protect public morals; by ensuring the content deemed inappropriate for public stays hidden

• people are easily influenced; driven to follow what they see/hear on the media

Answer 8

children

• no internal moral compasss
• can be desensitized if exposed to certain things (e.g the Bodo doll experiment, where the adults were seen hitting a Bodo doll – children were more violent)