1. By: Mike Mentis

2. Should all forms of
entertainment be Censored?
 Censorship is a term often associated with
totalitarianism, socialism, or anything but
democracy.
 While the definition of censorship has
changed over centuries, the basic idea
behind it is simple and has gone
untouched: the protection of the most basic
civil institutions of the family, the
church, and the state

3. History of Censorship
 In Ancient Greece, where democracy was
founded, the Ancient philosopher Socrates
fought against and eventually gave his life
rather than adhere to the Athenian
government’s censorship of his teachings.
 With the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of
intellectual freedom began to encompass
political and economical thought as well –
The American Revolution.

5. The Supreme Court Versus
Censorship
 The issue of censorship is one that
strikes the Supreme Court at many
angles with regards to the first
amendment rights.
 Roth V. United States
 Texas V. Johnson
 Reno V. A.C.L.U.

6.  First Amendment: Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or 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.
 Obscenity is not protected under the first
amendment, however, a penumbra falls over
the exact definition of the word.

7. Freedom of Information Act
 (FOIA), enacted in 1966, was the first
law that gave Americans the right to
access the records of federal agencies.
 The FOIA applies only to federal
agencies and does not create a right of
access to records held by Congress, the
courts, or by state or local government
agencies.

8.  Public use of the Freedom of Information
Act continues to rise, with 1,965,919 FOIA
requests filed with federal agencies in
fiscal year 1999.
 The intent of the FOIA is to prevent
agencies from having “secret law” and to
make the government accountable to the
public for its actions.

9. The Privacy Act
 The Privacy Act of 1974 provides safeguards
against an invasion of privacy through the
misuse of records by Federal agencies.
 The act also permits an individual to gain
access to most personal information
maintained by Federal agencies and to seek
amendment of any inaccurate, incomplete,
untimely, or irrelevant information
 . Agencies subject to the Freedom of
Information Act are also subject to the Privacy
Act

10. Survey Results
 Most people felt censorship is necessary
for our society and that age restrictions
for certain material is needed
 They didn’t want government
involvement when it came to
censorship, they also didn’t want
government to censor history books

11.  Older Population- Generally agreed with
all forms of Censorship
 Younger Population- Did not agree with
censorship
 Females also seemed to support
censorship more than males