The first website which I have found relates to pro-freedom of speech. Its more the article itself than the whole website, although there are other areas which discuss the Bill of Rights and censorship. This website relates to libraries and how they interpret the idea of censorship. The article itself demonstrates how no matter what the material being put out relates to, no one is aloud to pass judgement, and they have to respect the other person’s opinion. But, the article says that librarians have to act professional and be fair, but in my opinion is that not disrupting their rights to freedom of speech? The website puts itself out in a very professional manner, signifying how they show their respect for the idea of ‘Freedom of Speech’, and how they show value to other’s beliefs.
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/statementsif/interpretations/diversitycollection.htm
Finding an anti-freedom of speech website was very difficult, so I found an article on a website which says how a Californian court threatened to fire Christian members of an association because of remarks they made on an advertisement. The article also demonstrates that how the 9th Circuit Court (the largest and most overturned federal court in the US) is becoming a danger to the rights of free speech due to its irresponsible uses of power.
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=3091
My own opinion on censorship is very mixed. I certainly believe that everyone has the rights to say what they please, but it seems today in society that a reaction to what others say has to be polite and respectful. But I cannot see how you can be respectful to someone who has racist, sexist or homophobic views. By all means people can let their feelings be heard, but if it causes offence, then they must expect someone to argue against them. I feel that in modern times, people are scared to put their own opinions across, letting others take advantage of their rights to free speech.
Apologies for the lateness of the Blog
4 comments:
I liked this article about libraries and their role in censorship. It is hard to criticise libraries for not selecting certain books because what it comes down to is space and funding. Maybe the slightly racist book would have been shelved in the library had it recieved more money from the government. In the town Im from, our public library closed because it could not afford to stay open. This is a government budgeting problem and until we fix the problem of certain libraries not having books at all, I dont think material content of a libraries collection should be an issue.
I really enjoyed reading the second article about the 9th Circuit Court however I found it disturbing. Although the Court did rule against free speech, I believe in this case it was appropriate. This article was provided by a clearly biased Christian organisation and call the 9th Circuit "wacko". One startling thing about this website is the link "Traditional Values Defined". It makes me sad to hear about people who find it acceptable to treat other human beings like they're not entitled to the same life as everyone else.
The first article was rather complicated to read, but I find that it is a bit hypercritical in censoring certain books because of its content. I think people should be able to decide what they should want to not want to read and not be worried about offending certain people.
I found the second article was quite shocking to read about in how they were banned to use those certain words in email such as “marriage” and “natural family” as they found it “made homosexual city employees uncomfortable”. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the article, I think it was a bit extreme to ban a word like “family”, I think people in America are too conscious about who they may offend which is why they say “Happy holidays” at Christmas, instead of “Merry Christmas” which we do in Britain.
I have mixed view on this first web site. A part of me feels that libraries should be able to have any kind of book (if the book was far too racist, sexist etc, then it should not have been published in the first place) as some people take interest in reading about these sort of things. If they dont like the book, they dont have to read it. However i also feel that if all these books were shelved then it could encourage hate or violence.
The second web site i found very interesting. I think its becoming a joke how people now days are restricted so tightly on what they can and connot say, not being able to say “marriage” is just taking it way too far.
I found the first website interesting, i didn't realise that there were such restrictions on librarys and librarians, i do think that we should have a form of censorship but it seems to have gone a little drastic. The second website rasied some interesting points, i can't believe that the 9th circuit Court were basically taking away the christians right to free speech. I find it interesting that such a fuss was made over the posters when they weren't acturally being offensive, the posters did not say anything against homosexuals, i don't understand how it got as far as going to court. Its seems to me that Political correction and in some ways Censorship has gone over the top, and being trying to be "politiaclly correct" they are taking away are right to free speech.
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