Censorship

Censorship is the act of withholding information from a larger audience by an official who has the authority to do so. The name is that of the Roman officials from the era of the classical republic, who conducted the census and supervised public morality.

Oftentimes it is done for the supposed protection of the people, or to keep the group of people from knowing something bad about the empowered people.

The First Amendment and censorship in the U. S.

In the United States, the First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Broadly speaking, the First Amendment, in combination with the British legal tradition that is the foundation of U. S. law, prevent the government from exercising censorship. More specifically, the government cannot exercise "prior restraint;" that is, a citizen never needs advance permission from the government in order to publish something. This does not mean that publication may not have consequences. A citizen can be sued for publishing libel, or incarcerated for disclosing military secrets, but the consequences occur after publication, not before.