Censorship on Art; Good or Bad

Points have been raised in favor of and against imposing censorship on art. The people who believe that censorship needs to be imposed on art believe so due to the following reasons:-

Points in favor of censorship of art:
1. The right of an individual ends when such individual starts to infringe upon the rights and safety of other people. An example in this regard can be given of the laws that have been implemented with a view to prohibit hate speech and racial hatred. By implementing these laws, it has been accepted that there are certain limitations regarding the freedom of speech and expression. Moreover, it also needs to be noted that as is the case with other forms of free speech, similar restrictions should also be imposing case of art so that the freedom of expression enjoyed by one person does not impinge upon the rights of other people. On the other hand, if any exception from these restrictions is created in case of art, there is a possibility that such exception may be used by the people for indulging in hate speech, because these people will try to use the liberty that has been given to artistic expression for indulging in racial hatred or hate speech.

2. Censorship is not a completely negative thing. It needs to be considered as the set of rules that have been introduced with a view to protect the groups of society that need protection. An example in this regard can be given of the children. It is widely acknowledged that some materials should not be available to the children because they may be inappropriate for them. Therefore, in such cases, censorship can be applied. This is equally applicable in case of art. There can be some artistic materials which are of good quality but at the same time they may be inappropriate for the children. Therefore in such cases, censorship needs to be applied on art.

3. Against contrary belief, censorship can in fact help the artists. For example, the general public will also receive the artistic materials that contain sexual or erotic content if they are sure that such material will not reach their children. Therefore these artists can receive support from the people more openly because in such a case, as a result of the censorship, the people know that this material will not be available to the children.

4. Imposing censorship on art becomes all the more important because there are certain forms of modern art that tried to push the limits of what is acceptable or try to lower the denominators in taste in case of artistic works. Therefore under these situations, it is possible that these artists may produce works that are inappropriate for particular audiences and as a result, imposing censorship on such art can be justified.

5. Another example regarding censorship can be given in the form of the content presented by the media that have excessive violence and sex due to which, the viewers also started to emulate such behavior. There are several instances where the criminals have admitted that they had copied the idea to commit the crime from some story published by the media. Therefore even if, the artwork is not likely to inspire crime but it is a valid justification to impose censorship on the works of art that may be inappropriate for the society.

6. In this way, if censorship is imposed on artistic works, a strong message can be given to the artists regarding what is acceptable for the society. Therefore even if a few persons are able to dodge the provisions of this censorship, most of the artists will get the message. In this way, an important role can be played by the government in providing this message and at the same time, such a censorship on artistic work will also help in establishing the social standards regarding the appropriate artistic works for the society. Therefore, the imposition of censorship on art can play a significant role in this process.

Points against censorship on art:
But there are a large number of people who believe that censorship should not be imposed on art. According to these people, censorship should not be imposed on artistic works due to the below mentioned reasons:-

1. If the artistic works do not create any tangible threat to the safety of other people or their rights, the freedom of expression enjoyed by artists should not be curtailed by imposing censorship. The persons who believe in imposing censorship on art should first of all believe that the artistic works can cause a reasonable threat to others. Moreover, it can also be stated in this regard that if any crime has not been created during the creative process, it does not make sense to impose censorship on artistic works and the choice should be left to the people to decide what they want to see. In the same way, the apprehensions that objectionable content like child pornography may be presented to the people in the form of art is also not very reliable because doing so has already been prohibited by the law.

2. Censorship has proved to be ineffective and inconsiderate even when the government uses the age rating systems. The reason is that it fails to consider the difference that is present between maturity and the standard of education that is present between different youths and children. Similarly, it does not consider the difference that is present in the attitudes towards parenting adopted by the parents. It also needs to be noted in this regard that it is the right of the parents to raise their children according to the standards decided by them. However this right is significantly curtailed if the government imposes external standards in the form of censorship. In such a case the parents lose any discretion regarding the way in which they can raise their children but it cannot be denied that the government should not interfere in the private and family life of the people. This right has also been acknowledged by the human rights conventions. Therefore when the people have the right to elect their representatives in the Parliament, the right to elect the government of the country, they should also be provided with the right to decide the way in which they are going to raise their children or to decide what artistic material should be accessible to the children. Another point that can be placed against imposing a ban on artistic work is that the people are not under any pressure to watch a particular work of art. People decide to see art out of their own will and therefore, the decision should be left of them, what they want to see and what offends them. Therefore, if a particular piece of art is considered as offensive by the people, they can simply avoid it and stay away from such artistic work.

3. An apprehension has also been expressed that instead of promoting the cause of art, by imposing a censorship on art, the interests of art will also suffer. For example, if it has been decided by the government that a particular artwork is not appropriate for children, it is highly likely that the general public will also stay away from it and in such a way, we may lose precious pieces of art, even if they were suitable only for adult audiences. If such a situation would have been present in the past, we would have missed a lot of masterpieces today.

4. Whenever, the debate regarding the imposition of censorship on art starts, a suggestion has generally been given according to which, the decision to impose censorship on art should consider the risk of stifling the right of free expression of the artists and the chances of the creation of inappropriate material. However, the definition of acceptable and appropriate artwork changes with time. For example, what could have been shocking and offensive for the audiences nearly 50 years ago, can be perfectly acceptable these days. In this way, the decision to impose censorship on art will amount to simply living in the past. Therefore, it should be left to the members of society to decide if any art form is controversial or offensive for the society and in such a case, the society will decide to reject such work of art.

5. Doubts have also been expressed regarding the link that has been mentioned to be present between watching violent and sexual acts on the screen and committing these acts in reality. It is clear that many of these studies have been funded by special interest groups and moreover, these studies cannot be described as very extensive. In this regard, it also needs to be acknowledged that correlation between watching violence and sex and committing these acts is different from being the cause of such acts. It can also be said in this regard that the people who already have violent tendencies also tend to watch such content more. In the same way, it is likely that the person who has rapist tendencies will be attracted towards pornography. Therefore, even if there are chances that the people who a weak mind could be influenced by such material, it will not be appropriate to apply the same standards to the whole of the society. Therefore, it will not be correct because they’re the rights of the whole society only because a few people could be negatively influenced by a particular artwork. There are several other methods available to reduce the crime in society. These methods will also have much less impact on the rights of other individuals, for example, like imposing strict penalties for committing crime.

6. Another reason due to which it is not practical to impose censorship on art is that it is ultimately not possible to impose a complete censorship on art. For example, a lot of artwork is present on the Internet and it is very difficult to impose a censorship on such art. The reason is that a particular piece of art can reach a lot of people across the world very quickly. Apart from the reasons related with the recent technological developments, it also needs to be noted that by imposing a censorship on art, the creation of offensive artistic work will not be stopped or it will continue to be produced, although in a hidden way. At the same time, there is also a risk that when a particular piece of art is banned by censorship, such work may become even more attractive for the people and a lot of people would like to see it, if only to see why such artwork has been banned. In this way the real purpose behind imposing censorship will be defeated because instead of keeping the offensive artworks away from the people, such censorship may promote these artworks. Therefore, it is better to let the people decide if a particular piece of art is good or bad for them.