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When Is Military Censorship Ethical

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When information is withheld it is always for a cause, whether to protect or to maintain an image. The withholding of information is not a concept that is new to society and is a reality to many nations around the world. Said withholding of information is commonly referred to as censorship. Censorship comes in a great amount of forms and can be enforced in various ways. Moral censorship has been rather accepted as its primary purpose is to hide the obscene or morally questionable, however, political censorship is often frowned upon as large numbers of the population deem governments have no right to hide information from the population. While military censorship is a necessity due to tactics and sensitive issues. From the forms of censorship arises the concern of when is censorship ethical and acceptable. Therefore, from an ethical standpoint, censorship is right if it is used to protect morals, which includes opinions, rights, justness, to protect …show more content…
The protection of intelligence and personality fall under the category of moral censorship. Content that may negatively affect personality and intelligence is to be censored as, in the words of Plato, “[The Artist/Poet’s] works have a low degree of truth...because he deals with a low element of the mind..he wakens and encourages and strengthens the lower elements in the mind.” In consequence, what can inspire the lower elements of the mind must not be supported. In the case of Plato, he is seeking to ban what damages personality. In order to maintain integrity of morals, certain art would need to be selectively removed as well, including poetry and drama which may rouse behaviour that poses a negative effect on society. With that, moral censorship remains ethical, only if it meets the aforementioned conditions, and it’s sole purpose is to protect the integrity of morals, intelligence, and prosperity of

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