consider the merits and demerits of censorship and state your reasons why you think it is necessary/unnecessary.

censorship is a rather controversial issue as we all have our own opinions regarding censorship. however, i personally think that censorship is vital.

censorship is necessary to protect the young and innocent. im sure no one is willing to see their children watching something morally wrong on the television, neither do they want their kids to get influenced by extreme violenece portrayed in shows. it is important to protect these children from young, so as to ensure they do not learn the wrong things. they are in a stage where they cannot make a decision towards what is right or wrong, and hence, they tend to believe whatever is shown on the television, fictional or not. hence, censorship is necessary to make sure these children grow up with the correct values and mindset.

also, censorship is necessary to avoid sensitive issues such as religious and racial issues. this is essential especially in a multi-racial country like Singapore, so as to maintain peace and order in the country. Singapore is very vulnerable when it comes to racial and religious conflicts and tensions as that would practically mean the collapse of the country, it being small. thus, to ensure no race or religion is being looked down upon or being criticised and for the interests of the country, it is necessary to have censorship.

furthermore, censorship is needed to protect national interests and the government in Singapore. there would be chaos in the country if political secrets are being divulged to the public, or even if someone goes against the government using the media. yes, some would say that the government might be corrupted and so on and so forth, but arent they the ones who lead the country and ensures peace and order in it? hence, some, if not all credits goes to the government for us being able to live in a safe and peaceful country. thus, censorship is crucial.

however, censorship causes us our freedom of expression. every human being should have the right to say whatever they want to and not be limited by any rules and regulations. with censorship, we are being restricted and stopped from expressing our thoughts and emotions.
on the other hand, as much as i believe that freedom of expression is important, i think that us being restricted by censorship due to the above mentioned issues is only right to guarantee morally right citizens and harmony in the country.

also, censorship is unnecessary as there are other sources of information available and what is being censored will be exposed sooner or later. in this IT savvy era, the internet is enough for one to search for any information under the sun. and hence, whatever is censored can be found out easily just by a few clicks.
however, how many more people actually bother to search the internet for the information that was being censored as compared to the amount of people who engages with media, ie listens to the radio and watches the television? i believe it's minority. hence censorship is still necessary to an extent.

therefore, in conclusion, censorship is necessary in the media to protect the interest of the country, and more importantly, the people.

what have you learnt in the article about the media in the way they present what is percieved over what is real?

from the article, i have learnt that even though the media does not always present the real side of the story, it still does support the truth more than what is perceived.

in the article, strong words such as 'catalogue of lies' and 'falsehoods' are used to portray how negative the behaviour of the US government is. this shows that even though the media knows the truth about the origin of the Iraq war, they do not go all out to protect the reputation of the US government and thus hide the truth.

however, the media first covered up the truth and led people to believe that the US invaded Iraq because it wanted to protect itself and also to get rid of Saddam Hussein, and yet this invasion has 'destroyed more of the country than Saddam Hussein ever did in more than twenty years'. and in the article, the real yet ambiguous truth that the US government invaded Iraq for their oil is being shown. the article states that 'oil is not a motivating factor', which means behind this given truth, there are other real reasons behind the invasion. and these reasons, no one knows.

this shows us how the media has the power to control the minds of people. it's a wonder how we people actually put so much trust in the media and believe whatever is told to us, and sometimes even get influenced and affected by it, not even bothering to find out if these news are the real facts or not.

hence, i conclude that the media does not always choose to tell us the truth. and thus, it is up to us to censor the information given to us and to choose what information is trustworthy and what is not.

im sorry mdm loh for the late work.

eugenia :D
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