Restricting Information

Abstract

There are two common responses to the issue of censorship. On the one hand there are the libertarians, deploring an affront to democratic values and staunch in their advocacy of freedom of expression. The imposition of censorship in any form, they argue, is the weapon of the dictator or the bigot. Freedom of expression is the essential safeguard of civil liberties because without it no other freedom can be advocated or defended. The liberal democrat must believe that all truths are provisional or partial, and that all premises are discussable. On the other hand there are the more or less intolerant majority who, having no inclination to say or read anything controversial or unsettling of society’s norms, do not feel constrained by censorship. The censor does not threaten the conformist who sees it as necessary to safeguard society’s interests.