Censorship can never be justified. Do you agree?

To censor means to ‘read publications or correspondence or to watch theatrical performances and suppress in whole or in part anything considered obscene or politically unacceptable’. However, to each and every individual, the term ‘obscene’ and ‘politically unacceptable’ may mean different levels of interpretation. Thus, censorship is extremely difficult, and thus can never be justified.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Censor

There are many forms of things awaiting censorship by the government, eg. Books, TV programmes, movies, music and even advertisements. This makes censorship even harder. Take for example live performance. It may include a ‘revealing’ dance, and this might be censored by the conservative local authorities who then order them to remove that part of the show. However, to the audience, the ‘revealing’ dance might not be as open as they see it. It might just be a normal everyday thing, and they see no reason why it should n
ot be allowed.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=censor&id=276945

Moreover, even if censorship does occur to eliminate the parts deemed inappropriate by censors, the meaning of the whole idea or concept will still be there! For example, a violent movie has its most bloody and gruesome scenes removed, yet the rest of the movie is still saturated with the idea of extreme brutality and condensed with bloodshed. However, the government could not totally ban such movies which are in popular demand! Otherwise, the people will still buy VCDs and DVDs from neighbouring countries for viewing.

However, there is certainly a kind of social customs and culture in an area, and censorship can be carried out especially for the people living there. There should have somehow a similar attitude towards what is acceptable and what is not in that unique and special culture of theirs. Yet again, a cosmopolitan area like Singapore has migrants from all over the world. The Chinese are traditionally more conservative, while the Caucasians are generally more open. Thus, conflicting views may arise due to the great differncein their beliefs.

Thus, we can see the limitations to censorship, and many controversies have arisen because of the different levels of acceptance of certain sensitive areas, including politcs. There isn’t a clear-cut line drawing a difference between the morally right and wrong, and thus, censorship can never be justified.