One thing I've seen when studying other countries like Canada and New Zealand is that censorship is a very central part of their society. And I find it interesting that when talking to people from these countries on the internet - and debating the issue - they seem unaware that there is no censorship in countries like the Usa. Yes, librarians might be instructed to remove a book from the library shelves of a school. But there's no government department dedicated to deciding universally what books are inappropriate for anyone to read, ever. There are those kinds of government offices in Canada and New Zealand.

I admire both of those two countries, and I believe that they have a more sensible public discourse about all the issues affecting their countries than the Usa, the UK or Australia have. However, I also think that in a core way, it would be very damaging to a society to have a government censor. People need to think freely about the world around them. And so you need both the information, and also the freedom to state opinions publicly about matters. And one has to work hardest to preserve this right when it comes to matters which are controversial or taboo.

On the other hand, I think that censorship is good when it cuts out noise pollution. I think that a censor board should consider of a piece of intellectual material in relation to the size of the pool of information which the public is drawing on. Censorship should be specific to the venue. When there are four or five radio stations in a city, or three television stations, or one newspaper - because the pool of options is very small, you have to preserve civility and truthfulness of those media organisations. On the other hand, with the internet - there's no reason that anything should ever be censored. In like manner there's no reason to prevent the distribution of a DVD video, or a book. The wonderful thing about the internet is that when there is a controversial issue being debated - a simple google search will immediately bring up passionate opinions on both sides of the matter, and so it's impossible to deceive people or to produce a bad social trend in a society.