Should Freedom of the Press Be Truly Free?

In the world we live in today, pretty much anything that happens around the world can be documented, either by pictures, articles, videos, and much more. The question is “Should all of these releases be accessible by the general public or should it be censored?”.

There  are many reasons that could provide reason for articles, pictures, and videos to be censored either by the government or by the media outlet’s ethical compass. One main reason that information should be censored is to keep the general public from mass panic and hysteria. For example, the government probably receives countless threats on all different levels on a weekly basis. If the public knew every time that there was a threat then everyone would live in fear every second of every day. By withholding information from the public and keeping it censored if the media catches wind of the threats, the censorship allows our citizens to remain living in peace. In addition to this, it is questionable on whether sites like WikiLeaks should be restrained in their output. WikiLeaks releases “whistleblower” information where they release information on alleged mismanagement, wasting of funds, abuse of authority, endangerment of public health, and endangerment of public safety by the government. For example, WikiLeaks uses information that has been acquired by hacking government servers to release confidential information, such as almost 100,000 documents about the War on Afghanistan, including, but not limited to, documents about friendly fire and civilian casualties. Though in a free country it should be expected for the common public to be able to access these types of things, there are some topics that should remain confidential in order for the government to work seamlessly and to protect the public from information that is on a need-to-know basis. In all, it is nice to think that in a free country, it is built in for the common public to know everything that goes on, but censorship is indeed necessary at times.

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