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'''Censorship''' is the prohibition of speech from a medium or audience for ideological reasons, as in the banning of [[prayer]] in the classroom or destruction of [[conservative]] newspapers on college campuses.<ref>http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19383118&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8</ref>  Censorship can also take the form of ostracizing students for expressing [[pro-life]] or other [[conservative]] views.<ref>See, e.g., [[liberals and friendship]].</ref>

'''Censorship''' is the prevention from communication of ideas and information which are deemed offensive, dangerous or sensitive. The word derives from ''censor'', the title of the Roman official who conducted the census and supervised public morality.

 

 

Political censorship involves a government preventing information from reaching its citizens. Perhaps the most well-known contemporary example of this is China's censorship of the [[Google]] search engine, known as the "Golden Shield Project", which prevents Google from displaying search results of some human rights websites,  websites promoting Tibetan independance, references to the 1989 Tianamen Square protests, and others. A famous example in fiction is George Orwell's novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', in which the main character works as a civil servant in the department responsible for altering or destroying historical information which the government wishes to keep secret. The rationale behind political censorship is that the political party in power can protect itself from revolution if the public is kept uninformed.  

 

Moral censorship suppresses information which is deemed to be offensive or damaging to public morality. It is commonly found in films broadcast on television, where scenes involving sex or violence are edited or excised, and instances of swearing are overdubbed with inoffensive words, background noise, or (less frequently) "bleeped out". Hip-hop and rock music albums are often released in two forms, one of which is a "clean" version which has had offensive material edited out.

 

Religious censorship combines features of political and moral censorship, as it can serve either to protect a ruling power, or to protect the public from coming into contact with heresies. One example of religious censorship is the Catholic Church's reaction to Galileo's heliocentric model of the solar system, which was thought at the time to be contrary to scripture.

 

==The First Amendment and censorship in the U. S.==

==The First Amendment and censorship in the U. S.==

Censorship is sometimes applied to prohibit obscenity that goes against common standards of public [[morality]]; however, these standards tend to fluctuate depending on time and place. Certain language and images that may have been censored in the past are typically common fare in the American media today. On the other hand, while nudity, for example, may be acceptable on mainstream French television, that is much less likely to be the case in conservative Muslim countries.

Censorship is sometimes applied to prohibit obscenity that goes against common standards of public [[morality]]; however, these standards tend to fluctuate depending on time and place. Certain language and images that may have been censored in the past are typically common fare in the American media today. On the other hand, while nudity, for example, may be acceptable on mainstream French television, that is much less likely to be the case in conservative Muslim countries.

== Quotes ==

== Quotes ==